Day 7 - Geysers, Springs, Mud Pots, and more

We didn't get out quite early enough this morning to do a ranger walk at Old Faithful, but we did manage to get out of the house by 8:30. And that was after pancakes and sausage for breakfast. It was our first hot breakfast for a while, other than the one we had for dinner. We drove in the west entrance and at the fork went south toward Old Faithful (so we were on the bottom left of the 8 shaped loops). 

Firehole falls was our first accidental stop because I thought it was the Firehole loop I had read about. It was just a short, one way road that took you past a small waterfall along the Firehole River. Worth getting out of the car for a picture, at least.

Now, what sets Yellowstone apart from all other parks we've seen is all the geothermal activity. Ethan and I saw a movie today that said there are more hydro/geothermal spots in Yellowstone than all other places combined: over 10,000. I believe it because you can see little steam vents from the road all over. There are several spots you can get out and walk on boardwalks around some of these hot springs, mud pots, and steam vents. The first one we got out at was the Lower Geyser Basin. This place was home to the Fountain Paint Pots, named such because the bubbling mud looks like it's latex paint. It is otherworldly and looks like something out of some kind of sci fi movie. Other spots, you have big holes in the ground the bluest water, but it's bubbling and steaming. Some are just hot, others are hot and extremely acidic. Needless to say, you do not leave the boardwalk anywhere near these things. Little rivers form outside the springs, and they are orange and yellow and all different colors. As with all things on these trips, the pictures will not do them justice.

The next set of hot springs, et cetera, was at the Biscuit Basin, and Will had read about a hike to Mystic Falls from this spot, so we stopped. First, we were up on more boardwalks, looking at different shapes and sizes of geo/hydrothermic areas. There was one geyser that went off fairly often, just not very high. There were other bubbling ponds with deep blue color and what sort of looks like white coral under the water. Past the boardwalk, the trail toward Mystic Falls started. It was about a mile hike, two out and back. It was a fairly easy trail and the payoff was great: the falls were beautiful. We were able to walk up higher and see them from a different vantage point. There was a sign that said to keep going up for the Biscuit Basin Lookout, which we took to mean the place we had parked our car. Back at the bottom, there had been two ways to get to the falls, one longer than the other. We assumed this was just the longer one and we could get back that way. The trail quickly became a switchback trail, high up, and Will started to freak out a bit. It had been his idea to go that way and not back the way we came, but he didn't realize how the trail was going to change. I wasn't all that nervous, but Will had to lean over and touch the side of the mountain. At one point he was sitting down sort of and saying he might turn back. I knew he was afraid of heights, but I was surprised by his reaction. Poor guy! He decided to keep going, and after a few switchbacks, the trail leveled off and there was not as much of a drop-off. Just when he was feeling safe, though, Will realized he lost his knife he had in his pocket. He told us to stay there and that he would be right back. So the kids and I took a 15 minute rest while he retraced his steps. He had to go back over the scary part. I tried calling him after a while to see if he just was going back the way we came and if we should go on. He answered on the third try (not sure how we had service on a mountain), and said he was one his way back, without the knife. I joked to the kids that it was probably in the car. 

We continued on the hike and it kept getting higher and higher. We were essentially on top of this small mountain. Finally, we reached Biscuit Lookout, which was just that, a lookout down to where our car was. Oops. Fortunately, we were able to find the spot to go down that was the other trail. Not so fortunately, it was similar to the part of the trail dad hated, with a narrow trail off of a somewhat steep cliff. It really wasn't that bad and a fall would not have led to death. You would have been bruised and battered, not much else. We finally made it down with surprisingly happy kids still and hightailed it to the car. Will immediately looked for his knife and found it in between the seat middle console. Ha! Will had logged our hike on his gps app Strava. Our 2 mile hike more than doubled, and we ended up going 4.8. The kids were champs. 

Hungry champs. We all were. It was well after 1 o'clock. We hit the road and drove to Old Faithful, which has it's own big area with a lodge, grocery, visitor's center, etc. The parking lot is huge to accommodate everyone. Eleanor and I waited in a line for the bathrooms - surprise - and then we ate lunch from rocking chairs on the steps of the store. Just as we started lunch, we saw Old Faithful go off over the roofs of buildings ahead of us. I wish we would have known and we would have walked to it first, before lunch. Because it went off, we had to wait until hour and half or so. I decided ice cream was necessary to kill some time. Ethan got mountain berry (delicious), and Eleanor got strawberry (also yummy). Then we went to the visitor's center. Will saw there was a junior ranger program going on, so we walked over to learn a bit. Ethan and I left early to watch a Yellowstone movie they were playing a half hour before Old Faithful. I was interested in the movie, but, admittedly, I also just wanted to sit down for a bit. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. 

We met up outside of Old Faithful. All around it, there are benches set up, but they were in the sun so we waited on some shaded logs a bit off. Faithful was predicted to blow at 3:22, give or take 10 minutes. We got a good spot a few minutes before it was set to blow. Sadly, Old Faithful was not so faithful this time. We waited at least 15 minutes after its predicted time. Will kept a running commentary of jokes while we waited. Every once and a while, it would spit out a bit of water and everyone's cameras would go up and there would be a collective whoop. Then it wouldn't continue and cameras would go down once more. Finally, Old Faithful gathered enough anger to spout off. A ranger said it blows from 100 to 180 feet. I have no idea how far the geyser went up today, but it was impressive and fun to watch. Another bucket list item. Though I'll tell you there are far cooler things here than Old Faithful. 

Cooler, or much hotter, like the Grand Prismatic Spring. Do me a favor and stop reading and Google Grand Prismatic right now. Click on images. That is what we saw on our way out today. It is gorgeous! You're not that much higher than it when you walk around it, though, so I may see if there's a spot to go where you can see it from a more arial view. But even our view was so dang cool. I saw pictures of it months ago, and this was pretty much the Yellowstone feature I was looking most forward to seeing. Yay!

To end our day, we wanted to find a place to dip our feet in some water. The day started cool but got warm and our tootsies could use a good soak. Will found a pullout along the Firehole River. The water wasn't all that cold at all (likely due to very hot water from the hot springs flowing in up River), and Eleanor changed into her suit right away. Normally, Will would be next, but he stayed in his clothes. I decided, what the heck, and changed into my suit quickly. We had water shoes, luckily, because the bottom was all rock. The water felt great. Not warm, but not bitter cold. It wasn't very deep and had a decent current. I went on my back and let the current take me downriver a few yards until it was more shallow and my backside was hitting rocks. Very fun! I did this a few times and then got out to dry off a bit. The kids stayed in another 20 minutes, having a blast.

Now we are in the last few miles of our drive out of the park. We will stop at the grocery (again) for a few things we forgot. Tonight's menu is tacos. We were determined to get back to the cabin a bit earlier tonight so that we can have dinner done and kids reading by 8:30. If we want to get out of the house earlier, we need to get to bed earlier. It's hard sometimes not to keep seeing one more thing, but I'm glad we have another few days here. We have lots of time to explore. Not sure which way we will go tomorrow, but I know Will wants to find a lake to swim in possibly.