Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Into Yellowstone Park

Saturday
Saturday arrived, we packed up and set off from Rainbow Point to drive the relatively short distance to Old Faithful, which is the name for the geyser, the area and some of the accommodation, which can be confusing. Lots of people going into the park meant we had to wait in line to go past the Ranger Station. Once in we cruised along the road, stopping to get pics of a small herd of bison. We arrived at Old faithful to find that it was poorly signposted, big and very confusing, however we eventually found the Snow Lodge, which is a big wooden structure, and registered. We were able to park our trailer almost outside our cabin, which made transferring stuff and eating a lot easier.
In the evening Sally rested and I went for a run through the park, passing by a lot of geysers, though I was going so fast I didn't have time to look at them, but was able to pick out wheelchair friendly paths for us.
Sunday.
We decided that on Sunday we would stay close to Old faithful, take a picnic lunch, and just walk round the accessible bits. There is a path which enables a circular walk of about 3 miles, with side bits. This is on asphalt and raised wooden boardwalks. We set off and enjoyed seeing the many fantastic features that we had only seen pictures of. Being Sunday there were lots of people around.
Although a natural event many of the geysers have semi predictable eruption times, so we were able to time our walk to include a couple. We walked past Castle Geyser, which has a 14hr cycle and was not erupting and on to Grotto Geyser, which was erupting, although it was spectacular is was not a high geyser. While we were stopped there a coyote came wandering by, totally unconcerned by the presence of people. Our walk included many beautiful ponds and springs which, by the presence of bacteria, were a variety of colours, which combined by bubbling water and steam were a truly fantastic sight. The second part of our loop walk was on boardwalks and took us past some strange scenery. Highlight of this part was to see the Beehive Geyser erupt, as it spectacularly sends a column of water and steam almost 200ft in the air. Finally we returned to the Old Faithful geyser and sat with several thousand (yes) others to await a predicted eruption. The eruption occurred about 5 minutes after its predicted time, which was quite good really. We returned to our little cabin quite exhausted, but having had a wonderful time amongst this wonder of the natural world

2 comments:

  1. Where are the bear pics? You know they are my absolute favourite - I am expecting some superb photos

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