Tuesday, June 21, 2011

June 21, 2011: Day 3, Yellowstone, Upper Geyser Basin and More

Happy First Day of Summer!!
We decided to head south from Madison Junction towards Old Faithful.  We took Firehole Canyon Drive and saw that the river is really high here, so the hot springs are closed (the swimming ones).  After that we drove to Fountain Paint Pots and enjoyed seeing the bubbling and plopping.  I took tons of pictures of the mud bubbling and we got soaked by Clepsydra Geyser.  Once we got to the Upper Geyser Basin, we were just in time to see Old Faithful erupting.  We walked the long trail to Morning Glory Pool and got to see lots of geysers and hot springs along the way.  Anemone Geyser was really neat, we got to see the pool empty and then fill and erupt, all within 30 seconds or so.  
After our long, nearly 4 miles of walking, we stopped for ice cream at the Old Faithful Lodge.  We watched Old Faithful erupt one more time before going to the visitor center to watch their movie and see the exhibits.  
On our drive back to camp we stopped along the Firehole Lake Drive and enjoyed seeing the geysers and hot springs.  Back at camp we had dinner and then went swimming!


 National Park Mountain



 Silex Spring
 Fountain Paint Pots

 Clepsydra Geyser




 Castle Geyser
 Crested Pool
 Crested Pool
 Firehole River
Punchbowl Spring
 Grotto Geyser
 Morning Glory Pool
 Color bands of Morning Glory Pool
 Chromatic Pool
 Bulger Geyser
 Spasmodic Geyser
 Spasmodic Geyser






 Great Fountain Geyser
 Pink Cone Geyser
Journal
8:00 am Tuesday June 21
We are leaving camp about an hour later than I had hoped, but it's a cloudless sunny day!  That clear sky is what led to us freezing our rears off last night.  I don't know what we are going to do today, but we are going to have fun!
We decided to head south from Madison towards Old Faithful.  We took Firehole Canyon Drive and saw that the river is really high here, so the hot springs are closed (the swimming ones!)
After that we drove to Fountain Paint Pots and enjoyed seeing the bubbling and plopping.  Once we got to Old Faithful we were just in time to see it erupt.  (Side note, we realized we forgot the wheels for the stroller, so we didn't get to use it)  We walked the long trail to Morning Glory Pool.  We saw Grotto, Daisy, Comet, and Splendid geysers, Punchbowl, Round, and Orange (Ear) Springs.  We also got to see Castle Geyser erupting, looked in Crested Pool and crossed the Firehole River.  On the way back we stopped at Riverside Geyser and waited a bit, but we had to move along.  The girls were tired and cranky from walking, but we were still able to see Giant, Oblong, Turban, and Grand Geysers, and Beauty Pool on our way to Spasmodic and Sawmill Geysers, which were splashing away.  We also saw Liberty Pool, Lion Group (erupting), Heart Spring, Beehive Geyser and Plume Geyser, followed by Anemone Geyser.  This one was neat because we were able to watch it fill and erupt.
After our long, nearly 4 miles of walking, we stopped for ice cream at the Old Faithful Lodge.  We watched Old Faithful erupt one more time before going to the visitors center to watch their movie and see the exhibits.
On our drive back to camp we stopped along the Firehole Lake Drive and enjoyed seeing the geysers and hot springs.
Back at camp we ate dinner then went swimming.

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