9-21-08 Sunday (Thar' She Blows)

This park goes on for miles and miles and yet every turn offers a view or trail. The park is split up into sections, almost like townships. Most sections offer campgrounds, fuel, general stores, lodging etc. On our way to Old Faithful (an hour drive), we again witnessed Bison and Deer here and there. We stopped at West Thumb Geyser Basin which was amazing. Hot springs were all over the place. Some offered clear water views and some were cloudy. Not as hard to see as the mud pots which was basically boiling mud. A lot of the springs in this section were overflowing into West Thumb Lake which connected to Yellowstone Lake. Some springs were in the middle of the lake. Some were crystal clear, other than steam. We spotted one that had coral reef type life at the bottom and I’m sure could have sustained tropical fish. Spectacular. All of it. The temperatures at most of these were about 167.

Cool picture slideshow below:

We made it to Old Faithful and decided to catch some lunch before watching the eruption. Old Faithful Inn sounded good for some burgers. After we ate we made our way toward the famous geyser; we apparently missed the eruption by 20 minutes or so. We stopped into a cafeteria for hot chocolate and soda, and parked our asses on a porch with rockers overlooking the geyser. A 45 minute wait well worth the time. Old Faithful blew and it was grand. Just as a note, there are many other small erupting geysers around Old Faithful with small eruptions. (Video Below)

By the way, while we waited for the eruption, I text messaged those of you I thought would have text messaging abilities with “Waiting on Old Faithful to erupt”. With some humorous replies mixed in from some of you, Laurie & Pearl wanted to know where we were to find us on a webcam. I called them and found that Nancy had come up with the idea. The eruption was already complete by this time but it was fun to figure out where the cam was based on what Pearl described she was seeing. Like “OK, a guy in a blue jacket just stood up…” We found the cam (Pictured on the left), which updated every 45 seconds (I think she said) and we were able to wave to them! It was so fun; I called Dave and had him look. Between everyone, here’s some pictures of Jim and I at the webcam. I think that was the most fun. Makes one really appreciate technology. Nancy says there’s one at the Grand Canyon so maybe we’ll do it again.

Below are some screen captures from the Old Faithful Webcam, compliments of Dave Ward. (We're the ones waving!)

An end to the day with some old recorded TV shows (last night we watched a DVD) and yummy hot chocolate. After all, it is about 36 degrees out!

More videos:





Kepler Cascade (above)

Geyser Basin 1 (above)

Geyser Basin 2 (above)

Geyser Basin 3 (above)

Geyser Basin 4 (above)

Thanks to Pearl for texting "Thar she blows".... it made a great title!