Traveling with Ray Owens

When I go to bed at 9:00 PM and the hotel room is too warm to sleep, I wake up at about 3:00 AM.  I did get a bit more restless sleep but I was up and at ‘em long before my 7:00 alarm went off.

The gang managed to all arrive in the lobby at about 8:45 for our departure which had been scheduled for 8:30.  No harm no foul.  The entrance to the national park is just about a mile from our hotel.   But due to the fact that about 1000 other cars full of people who had similar time schedules, the line to enter the park was just about a mile long.  We thought that line would continue to be backed up after we crossed into the park.   But miraculously we discovered that the cars after they slowly go through the 5 ticket gates that they somehow managed to disperse and separate very quickly.

Our goal was to drive from West Yellowstone to the Old Faithful Geyser basin.   This took us until about noon.   Not because it is that long a drive but because we stopped frequently with the hundreds of other visitors on the same road to OHH and AHH at the animals and the myriad thermal features along the way.

The drive is incredible. The road goes alongside the Firehole River and passes through many meadows where various animals like to graze and meander.   We saw: bison (bulls, cows and babies), elk, geese, and homo sapiens trying desperately to photograph the other species or to hook the local species of fish.

We stopped at the Black Sand Basin where many thermal features are actively dumping scalding water into the Firehole River.  The boardwalks make a very pleasant and safe way to walk among the various otherwise dangerous spouting and fuming places.

After arriving at the Old Faithful area we joined a few thousand other folks waiting for Old Faithful to demonstrate why it has that name.   But guides suggested that we make our way to the cafeteria to eat lunch while the masses were gathered around the geyser benches to await the next show.  It worked just as advertised.  There were only a few folks getting food at noon because the show was impending.   Just as we were finishing lunch the geyser show ended, and they all marched in and got in line for food.

We made our way around the Old Faithful feature to see many of the other geysers and hot features.   We then went to Old Faithful Inn to make our way to the second-floor balcony that overlooks Old Faithful and along with about a dozen other in the know folks we waited for the next eruption.   The remaining thousand or more not in the know folks gathered in the sun on the board walk to watch the show.   It was fun watching Charlotte and Logan trying to guess “is this it”.   Geysers do not come on and off like a bathroom sink faucet.  They sputter and spew a little before the big show starts.  Wes and Lorna said we got to see one of the big ones.   It was pretty amazing.

After the eruption was over, we went into the visitor center where they have lots of fun things for the kids to look at and learn.   For example, is it true or false that Old Faithful is not as faithful as it once was?   I thought it was true, but it turns out it is false.   It is true that a volcanic eruption in the past did extend the time period between eruptions but the faithfulness remains very close to the same as the predictability remains very reliable (+ or – 15 minutes). 

We made our way back to West Yellowstone to spend a couple hours at the Grizzles and Wolf Discovery Center.  It was a great way to get to see bears and wolfs (as well as birds and otters and fish and ground squirrels.  The animals are all rescued.  The bears are generally animals that got used to getting food from humans and grew to associate humans with easy food.  That of course is dangerous for humans.  Some of the bears are brought here.   The Center does not keep them in small cages, but they have large enclosures that are daily rearranged (the logs, trees and rocks).  The care takers hide their food in different locations and that keeps the bears engaged by having to look for their food.  It was a pretty amazing exhibit.

We ate dinner in The Outpost restaurant.  I had the Son of a Gun Stew.  It was very good.

We are back at the hotel and plan on getting more sleep tonight.

It was a good day