I stole the pic-a-nic basket, Boo-Boo, Yogi barely admitted.

After breakfast and hitting a couple of roadside caches, I headed over to West Yellowstone, Montana. After gassing up and getting a drink, and grabbing a stamp at the west entrance visitor center, I was ready to head into Yellowstone National Park, one of the top places that I had always wanted to visit, and I certainly was not to be disappointed. There were some great views of the Firestone river along the park entrance road and before I even got too far I spotted some large nesting birds (condors maybe?), nesting swans, cute little groundhogs, and a bald eagle perched on a tree near the river. There were plenty of elk herds sitting around in nearly every roadside meadow. It is hard not to be the a*hole driver and move forward at a crawl when you want to almost stop and look at everything.

I hit the Madison ranger station for a passport stamp and then headed over the the Firehole river which is one of the few places in the park where the public is allowed to swim (for good reason). There was a great swimming hole that is deep enough to dive (I saw a SCUBA diver climbing out as I arrived, apparently looking for treasure dropped by swimmers. I did some bouldering at the waters edge for some fun. Apparently once I was around the bend, the water chute I was climbing past had a sharp turn. As I was contemplating pushing myself into the middle of the river I slipped on a rock and went down hard on my ass. All I could do was curl up and ride it out. After bouncing around for a few moments, I was spit out and into the calmer water. For my sins, I had a huge bruise that covered my entire left butt cheek that did not clear up for the next two weeks and made me uncomfortable for the next two days. That and a small rip in my convertible hiking shorts got me to decide to be a little more cautious for a while.

After drying off I headed over the the Fountain Paint Pot area for a boardwalk loop of some of the geological features. this is pretty much my first real exposure to anything such as a geyser, boiling pond, etc, though I did see some boiling mudpots and steam vents at Lassen NP last year in the Bumpass Hell area. Some of the areas were busy with people (after all Yellowstone is one of the most visited parks in the nation), but only a little patience was required to get some good shots without people in the way. The next few hours were spent wandering the various boardwalks and overlooks among all the boiling lakes, mud pots, and such. The Grand Prismatic Spring is one of the most stunningly colorful things I have ever seen. It is really neat to see how just a few degrees change in temperature can sustain the different bacteria that make up each color. After staring at some of these things for a while I headed over to the next parking area which ended up being the trailhead for Fairy Falls. While on the trail I was able to get a more highly elevated view of Grand Prismatic Spring. The trail to the falls went through a lot of new growth from the devastating fires that consumed much of Yellowstone NP many years ago. It started to drizzle for a while and even though I had left my jacket and other gear in the vehicle, I toughed it out and kept going. I was glad to have stuck to it as I really enjoyed being able to enjoy the tall fall in complete solitude. The rain didn't last too long and it had quit by the time I got to the falls so that I could take out my camera.


Once I got back I decided to head towards the Old Faithful area. I had planned on making this the last portion of the trip, but it was close enough to hit that evening. On the way to the Biscuit Basin area, I saw a large elk grazing by the road and got in a few shots before hurrying off to catch the last of the day's light. At Biscuit Basin I was able to see my first real water spouting holes in the ground instead of the steam fumerols that I had been seeing earlier. I got to the Old faithful area just as it was getting dark, and missed the last daylight geyser display. I cooked dinner in the parking lot and then headed for the OFI (Old Faithful Inn) as I watched a coyote walking around the area.. The Inn itself was really beautiful and rustic, however I didn't take any pics on this visit (but did later) since I had enough stuff in my hands as I found a bathroom and was able to get a shower that I think I really needed. After that I grabbed a local brew on tap at the bar and sat in the lobby downloading pictures and GPS tracks while charging batteries for a while. It was way too far to try to drive outside of the park, so I couldn't just set up a tent off the road as the rangers are pretty strict about that. My only remaining option was to sleep in the car itself in the front seat. After a while, it wasn't too hard to get comfortable and quickly fall asleep, no doubt aided by exhaustion from the long, but quite satisfying day.