We were all tired from our long day yesterday, and for that reason we didn't leave the house overly early this morning. We got up and checked out the house because it had been dark when we arrived. It's a very nice house on a beautiful five acres. From the yard you have a nice view of the Tetons in the distance. There is a creek in the backyard that you can take a short hike to also. There is a hot tub and a fire pit, making the outdoor space extremely nice. After everyone had explored and eaten breakfast we packed up and headed for Yellowstone.
The house we are staying in is about thirty miles outside of Yellowstone. The drive up is through Teton National Park and is very beautiful. A few minutes from the house is an overlook called Oxbow Bend. The views from this spot are indescribable! Every time we drove by I wanted to take more pictures.
We arrived in Yellowstone mid-morning. Our first stop was at Old Faithful which I thought was fitting as it is an icon for Yellowstone. We were a little early for the eruption, so we had a picnic in the park. There are so many classic buildings here at the Old Faithful site. The Old Faithful Inn is a must see! I'm not even sure how the architecture works in this place, but it is absolutely beautiful! The big fireplace in the lobby just finishes off this classic scene. You can go out on the deck on the second floor and have a great view of Old Faithful erupting. We opted to go down to the geyser and watch it up close. Some people say watching Old Faithful is nothing special, but everything about it was special to me. Where else can you go and see water spouting so many feet up in the air, and being blown there by volcanic activity deep in the ground! It steams and bubbles and gurgles all before it finally spews gallons of water high into the air! I always thought Old Faithful was out there by itself - a lone geyser doing it's thing. But, I was wrong. There is a whole field of geysers in the same area. They have a great boardwalk trail for you to walk all around the geysers. They all blow at different times. We were lucky enough to catch Castle Geyser go off. It spews water for about twenty minutes and was quite a sight to behold. I never knew they could last so long.
After we had spent ample time seeing all there was to see in the Old Faithful area, (Kade especially enjoyed the very educational visitor's center, and all the kids bought lots of souvenirs) we set out for the Grand Prismatic Spring. Again I had no idea what Yellowstone was like before I came. The Grand Prismatic Spring is also in a field of a bunch of hot springs. They are beautiful in color and shape. This area made me nervous as there are not railings on most of the boardwalk and if you fall in the springs, you don't survive to tell about it. We held tightly to the boys' hands as we walked this area. I will say the one thing that wasn't my favorite was the smells at these areas. The smell of Sulphur is very strong, and you realize how many different things are going on in the ground below you.
One of my favorite parts of the day was taking the Fire Hole Lake Drive. It's a little road off the main road after the Grand Prismatic Spring. It doesn't look like much, but it has some amazing thermal features. We stopped at an overlook where we saw the steam just rising out of the ground. It was a perfect hot spring pool with beautiful colors. It was much easier to see the colors than the big pools because it was all contained in a small area. In the background there was a perfect geyser going off. It lasted so long and gave us time to get great pictures. I learned later that this particular geyser goes off twice a day and blows for about an hour each time. It's unpredictable though, so we just happened to be there at the right time. There is a river that runs through this area that is a hot river. It's made from the boiling springs and the steam just rises from it as it runs its course. The whole area here is a fragile thermal area, so you have to be careful to stay on the roads and walkway. You can see places where new geysers or hot springs have just come up. It was an incredible scene which I will never forget.
We ended the day with the Fire Hole Canyon Drive. This is a drive that follows a canyon up to a waterfall. The water here is warmer than most of the rivers because the hot river I was talking about before runs into it. They have a spot here that you can actually get into the river and swim. I didn't realize they had any spots that you could get in, so that was pretty neat. Our day was getting late and we didn't have time to get in the water, but the kids did hike down and touch it. The falls at the end of the drive are beautiful and well worth taking the extra drive. We stopped at the falls and had a little supper before we headed back to the cabin for the night.
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