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Published: July 18th 2021
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Buffalo soon after entering parkWe awoke a bit later than usual, around 7am, and headed out for our last trip to Yellowstone, stopping on the way there at our Sinclair station for some coffee. Not long after we ended the park, I spotted a buffalo not too far from the road, so I pulled over so we could take some photos. We continued on south to Old Faithful. I noticed today that the 20 to 30 mile drives from one main place to another through the park don't seem to take nearly as long. I guess that when you are not looking so closely at the scenery, even the slower speeds and frequent stops or slowdowns, the same amount of time passes more quickly.
When we reached the Old Faithful, or Upper Geyser Basin turnoff, we fairly easily found a place to park. I guess it was still a bit early for some folks, because everyplace got busier as the day went by. We parked the car and headed to the main viewing area to wait for Old Faithful to erupt. I'd heard someone say it would be about 12 minutes until the next "hourly" eruption. We each found a good place to stand
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First stop of the day, Old Faithful so we could take good photos, since the bench seats were pretty much all taken, and sure enough, in about the 12 minute period I thought I'd heard, she started... blowing her lid. Old Faithful is not the biggest geyser in the park, but she is well known for her timeliness, about once an hour. For at least a couple of minutes she sprayed water/steam well up into the air. Quite a sight! When it settled back down, we walked the inner loop around Old Faithful, past Blue Star Spring and up to the observation point above, then back down to the main buildings. Somewhere along the way, I'd taken off the small backpack to have a sip of my Dr. Pepper, and apparently let my wife's water bottle slip out, so we went to the General Store to get a replacement. The gift shop and snack bar in the lodge had long waiting lines, but the General Store was not nearly as busy.
With a fresh bottle of water for my wife, we started the Upper Geyser Basin trail. Along the way we saw a good number of fascinating geysers and pools, such as Castle Geyser, Giant Geyser,
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Panoramic view of folks waiting for Old Faithful and Beauty Pool, all of which I've included photos of. After a good long walk, we returned to the main Old Faithful area, found our car, and headed towards our next stop of the day, Grant Village and Yellowstone Lake. Since it was getting close to lunch time, we'd checked out the eateries at Old Faithful, but they were all quite busy. When we arrived at Grant Village, we followed the "restaurant" signs to a pretty much empty parking lot, pulling into the nearest spot to the restaurant's walkway. We were afraid it must be closed, but they were open and serving "to go", with a fairly decent menu. My wife had been hungry earlier and ate a almond butter and honey sandwich, so it was just me. I ordered what I thought was bowtie pasta with marinara sauce, adding meatballs when the lady asked. What I got was spaghetti with meatballs. It was still pretty good and filling. After lunch, we wandered around down by the lake, then headed to our next main stop of the day, Midway Geyser Basin, where Manoli wanted to see the Giant Prismatic Spring.
We headed back past Upper Geyser Basin and not
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Old Faithful erupting long after reached the Midway Geyser Basin. By this time of day, things had really picked up. As we approached the entrance, we discovered a long line of cars, barely moving, and a good number of vehicles parked along the roadside. I decided I didn't want to wait in the long line, so I drove past the entrance and found a decent spot to park on the road, behind a large RV. We parked the car and walked to the main area, on decent paths and in good time. I think we beat all the cars waiting to park! A quick trip to the bathroom (grab the opportunity when it arises, as there is seldom no place else past the entrance area!), and we headed up the walkway. We first past the Excelsior Geyser Crater, which was pretty cool, then reached to star of the show, the Giant Prismatic Spring. It was very large and very colorful. See the photos. We opted not to climb up to the overview point, although Manoli now says she regrets it. These two sights are pretty much all there is at the Midway Geyser Basin, so we walked back to the car and headed
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Blue Star Spring at Old Faithful to our final stop of the day, the Artist Paintpots.
The Artist Paintpots is basically an area that has a number of bubbling mudpots, that apparently change colors now and then. The only ones we saw were white or slightly blue. After a walk around the trail, including this time the overlook point, we headed back to the car and drove north out of Yellowstone, for the last time. We decided along the way, since it was getting to be dinner time, that we'd check out where there was to eat in the nearby town of Gardiner. We drove most of the way through the town before spotting The Corral, which advertised Bison Burgers. Since this might be our last opportunity, we decided to try it out. I ordered the Bison Burger of course, and Manoli had a homemade tomato soup and a large salad. My burger was delicious and tender, probably the best burger I've ever had. I tried Manoli's soup and it was quite good too.
After dinner, we drove back to the KOA, stopping for a coffee at our favorite Sinclair. I was going to try out their indoor swimming pool, but it was after
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View of terrace above Old Faithful 8pm when I got there and the closed at 8. Oh well, another KOA. I worked on this blog for a bit, then got sleepy. Tomorrow we move on to Missoula, Montana. We hoped to visit the Glacier National Park, two days from now, but they were limiting park entrance. We will have to call after 8am tomorrow to see if we can get one of the "lottery" entrance passes.
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Sylvia Storm, Pensacola, FL
non-member comment
Hi JC and Manoli, it is always wonderful to get your travel adventures and as usual they are very interesting! Have a wonderful adventure and trip. Give my regards to Manoli.