9/9 - Yellowstone, Day 1

We got off to a good start this morning which was a good thing. After going to the visitor information center for maps, we headed right to the park. First traffic jam was getting through the gate where the line was so long we couldn't see the sign indicating the longest line was for pre-paid and passes. By the time we could read the sign we were stuck in the have-to-pay lane. (We have senior passes so should have been in the long line which moved much quicker.) Tomorrow we'll know better.


Off down the road again until another jam. Turned out that one was for firefighters stopping people from trying to get into an area they were using for staging for the Maple fire which they are still working. Sorted that out and everyone moved again. From then on every time there was a jam it was for animals. People get so excited over seeing a single bison or a few elk that they park all over the place, including right next to the signs saying not to park on the side of the road. The poor park rangers really have their hands full, especially with the nitwits who get out of their vehicles (again, next to signs saying not to) in order to get nice and close to that lone bison bull who could run them down in seconds if he got annoyed.


The Yellowstone Caldera was created by a massive volcanic eruption 640,000 years ago. The caldera is about 30 x 45 miles across now and is totally inside the national park. The volcano last erupted 174,000 years ago. With all the hydrothermal activity going on (geysers, mudpots, fumaroles, springs) it's obvious this is still a very active volcano. There are between 1,000 and 3,000 earthquakes in the area every year. The University of Utah Seismograph Station monitors the area very closely. It wouldn't be good for the Park Service to have visitors blown out of the park by an eruption.

We stopped every place there was to stop.  As we tell each other frequently, we will never be this way again so let's not miss anything. We ended up totally fried by the time we got home but it was worth it.


The biggest problem now is that I took 226 pictures (which have been whittled down to 160) and many of them are really good. So....which to choose.....

This is the Firehole River going past some very volcanic looking terrain, right next to a nice green forest and the remains of a burned forest. The park has had a lot of wildfires and we saw the evidence of many of them. Most are caused by lightning although humans make far too big a contribution.

Firehole Falls on the Firehole River. This is the driest time of year and the river was still roaring. Can't imagine how it must look after the snow melts in the spring.

There are columns of steam rising all over the valley....both in the grassy areas and through the trees. They blend in nicely with the clouds.


We saw so many beautiful and fascinating hydrothermal features it's really hard to narrow the pictures down to a reasonable number. I've chosen some of my favorites. I'm not going to comment on any except Old Faithful. 

We got to Old Faithful just a few minutes before it erupted. The area was crammed with people....probably at least 2000....so we couldn't get a decent view of it. We spent the next hour touring Geyser Hill and returned to see Old Faithful's next show. It really is amazing.

Blue Star Spring

Pump Geyser

Doublet Pool

Beach Spring erupting in bubbles

Depression spring

 Castle Geyser

Pendant Spring

 Goggles Spring

 Clepsydra Geyser

Firehole Spring

Heart Spring

 Great Fountain Geyser (which unfortunately didn't erupt while we were there)

 Midway Geyser Basin and the Firehole River

 Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand Prismatic Spring

There are countless amazing sights in the area we covered today, but the Grand Prismatic Spring was probably the most beautiful of all. That's why there are four pictures of it...and I have many more. It's the largest and one of the most colorful of Yellowstone's many hot springs.


Cell service in the park is non-existent except for near the visitors centers, so our ability to communicate with Ashlen is very limited. Last we heard, they're about 70 miles away from us near the south entrance. Unless they move to a campsite near the west entrance we probably will not be able to see them. 70 miles doesn't sound like that much but a round trip of 140 miles would take a minimum of 4 hours through the park. Being near the south entrance will make it difficult for them to see the northern side of the park so we're hoping they'll move.


Tomorrow we will probably go north to Mammoth Hot Springs. We don't know if weekend traffic is any worse than weekdays but we'll find out.