http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2015/04/one-day-in-yellowstone-national-park.html
Okay. Now that you've read that, lets continue with the rest of our day.
Next stop...Old Faithful!
We know that Old Faithful is a huge tourist draw, and with good reason. However, we are reminded by the huge parking lot and associated buildings surrounding this famous geyser why we're happy that we're not here during busy season.
Old Faithful, steaming away. It was to be another hour or so before the anticipated eruption time.
The expected eruption time that was advertised at the visitors center was 2:47pm..."give or take 10 minutes either way"! We used that hour to go for a quick walk to an overlook.
More Yellowstone scenery.
Not sure what this was. Kind of a cross between a squirrel and a groundhog.
The "town" surrounding Old Faithful.
Waiting for another small geyser to erupt. The sign said "every 5 to 7 minutes" it would erupt to four feet high, but all we saw was a small burp!
This one erupted for about a full minute!
As I said earlier, there are about 6,000 geysers in Yellowstone, and Old Faithful is not the largest, but it is the most predictable. It erupts approximately every 90 minutes to an average height of around 145 feet (44 meters).
By 2:41, the people were gathered waiting...
Waiting for the 2:47pm eruption.
After a couple of false starts, she finally blew off steam. It was actually 2:57 when it finally happened, so it made us wait right to the end of the prediction timeline. Ruth videotaped the event for your enjoyment...
So, that was kind of fun. Definitely something to see. I wish the sky would have given us a nice blue background, but it wasn't meant to be.
Lots of thermal activity.
Look at the water boiling!
The Old Faithful Inn was built between 1903-1904. They say it's the largest log building in the world.
We wanted to see the inside, but it wasn't open for the season yet.
What a huge old building.
We had to do a 50 mile (80 km) drive to get from Old Faithful to the north entrance of the park. Lots to see along the way, but the road was under construction and time was running out. We knew this was just a quick visit, so we got back on the road. But the fun wasn't over yet!
A waterfall stop along the way.
And then we came to a bunch of cars parked along the road. All kinds of people, some with huge camera lenses. Turns out they had been watching these two grizzly bears ( a mom and her cub from last year) and it looked like they had been there for a while. The bears were on the opposite side of the river, and really, quite far away. But our camera has a decent zoom lens and we did get a couple of pics...
Mother bear.
And baby bear. Look at the size of those claws!
We didn't linger though, because we had to do seven miles of this...
Nothing to do, but drive slowly...for 7 miles!
We made it to the north entrance of the park where Mammoth Campground is located. This is the only campground in the park that's currently open...the rest open at various times in May. They wanted $20 per night with no hookups, and really, it's not the nicest campground. Right beside the highway, and not the nicest sites. We figured we could do better, and we did.
Just as we were exiting the park we saw this big fellow!
Sherman, parked up at National Forest's Eagle Creek Campground, GPS co-ordinates 45.0456576 -110.6768797.
Our view, for $7 a night!
We're going back to the northern part of the park this morning to check out one more thing...you can read about it tomorrow morning!
Don't forget to buy this year's supply of the best RV holding tank treatment...
Currently on sale, and it ships to Canada too!
I believe that is called a marmot. Nice bear shots.
ReplyDeleteYes you are right, and we looked at a picture and questioned ourselves because it didn't quite look like the picture.
DeleteYou know Old Faithful must be pretty popular, by the fact that the park service had to construct a freeway-style cloverleaf interchange off the two-lane US Highway 89/191/20/287(!), just to handle all the summer traffic.
ReplyDeleteYep, they sure did, and we can't understand why anybody would even want to be there during the summer season. It must be like a zoo then!
DeleteI'm pretty sure that's a yellow-bellied marmot. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, I believe you are totally right on that, thanks! :-)
DeleteWe were there in summer of 2012 (July) and it wasn't bad for tourists. I think it's because it's such a huge area that it doesn't seem very busy. Ol' Faithful is nice, I have a video too :)
ReplyDeleteYou could be right on that Karyn Lee but we aren't about to give it a go in July or August! There were enough people there on a more or less crappy day in April.
DeleteSome years back we pulled into Eagle Creek..for about 5 minutes...The skeeters yelled..Dinner-Time.....Gone in a flash to the crowded Mamouth Campground.....No skeeters tho..
ReplyDeleteUpriverdavid
Well I guess that I am glad we weren't there during the skeeter season! We luckily had no problems. ;-)
DeleteThanks for the video , was excellent.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it George!
DeleteThe park looks so different this time of year. There is a different beauty to it.
ReplyDeleteWe really didn't mind visiting the park at this time of year other than the fact that it was damp and the snow was falling. We would have preferred to have it a little colder but have a nice blue sky, oh well guess we can't always have it the way we would like it! :-)
DeleteMy vote is a marmot also. Great pictures of the bears. Grizzlies are rare because they stay in the back country most of the time.
ReplyDeleteAccording to an article I read recently, a mother with cub(s) may purposely stay close to human activity because it affords protection from other bears.
DeleteYes, it was a mormot, a yellow bellied one to be exact.
DeleteIt does seem like the grizzlies stay hidden most of the time but there could be something to what Elaine posted about as well. Also it is spring time and they are out looking for food after a long winter's nap.
Our thanks for the video, too - we enjoyed it!!!
ReplyDeleteB & C in PA
You are welcome Connie and Barry. We couldn't believe how long Old Faithful kept spewing out the water and steam, it seemed to go on for 4 or 5 minutes and we weren't going to video the whole thing, we just wanted to give everyone an idea of what the experience was like.
DeleteHow cold was it in Yellowstone? Bet it was none too warm at Eagle Creek, either. We love this entire area and have spent a month for a couple of summers in Livingston, MT (north of Gardiner). Hope you get a chance to return so you can explore the Park and environs. Nice pictures!
ReplyDeleteI don't think the temperature got much higher than 38 or 39F (3C) in Yellowstone which would have been fine if it weren't for the falling snow mixed with rain that we had. The snow and rain just made a mess of everything, especially getting in and out of the motor home all the time and having to put on and take off shoes and jackets. We didn't get to Eagle Creek until a little later in the day so we just stayed in Sherman and cooked up a nice warm meal which kept things toasty inside. I think the temperature was around the freezing mark there overnight.
DeleteYes, we are hoping to get back here again next fall. We went through Livingston as well and it looked like a nice spot but we didn't have time to check it out this time around.