With rain coming down most of the night and into the morning and more promised for later in the day we decided to take the day off, do a little laundry, some shopping and Mike and Don could shoot some pool.
Sunday the 30th
Well the rain has stopped, but it's only about 40 degrees out. After breakfast we sat down and made a plan to go to Old Faithful Lodge. That way if the ladies didn't want to do any hiking, they'd have a nice warm place to do some shopping and relax while waiting for the boys to do their thing.
We left camp for the thirty mile drive to the Old Faithful Lodge around 10:30 AM. Reaching Madison Junction we turned south for a mile then took the Firehole River Drive where we stopped to take pictures of the Firehole Falls which drop bout forty feet between steep basalt canyon walls.Leaving Firehole drive our next stop is at Fountain Flat Drive in the Lower Geyser Basin to see Fairy Falls, at 197 feet high, Fairy is one of the tallest waterfalls in Yellowstone. Unfortunately to get there you have a 10 mile round trip hike. Since that wasn't going to happen, we continued our drive south until we reached the Firehole Lake Drive.
Turning onto the one way road we reached the Great Fountain Geyser just as it was going off. Tina managed to get a couple of good shots through the trees before it ran out of steam - hah, hah! Back in the car we rolled over to the parking area so Don and I could get a close-up shot of the huge cone. Then it was on to Old Faithful Lodge for lunch.We were really fortunate. We actually pulled up at the front of the lodge and parked about thirty feet from the entrance. The place was really busy and since it was lunch time, the lines into the cafeteria reached almost to the door. But we decided to try anyway. Moving at a snails pace we made it up to the cafeteria entrance then walked up to the "Hot Meal" counter where we were about sixth in line to be served. With only one person behind the counter we finally got to order our lunch - nearly forty minutes after getting in line.
Meanwhile (we found out later), Don and Diane had given up and got a couple of prepackaged sandwiches. We quickly ate our lunch and with neither Don nor Diane answering their phone grabbed a couple of ice cream cones. Wandering back towards the car, Tina spotted Diane in the gift shop and I found Don outside by the car.With all four of us back together again, Don and I left the girls in the lodge and walked out to see the 1:30 PM eruption of Old Faithful. This geyser erupts every 35 to 120 minutes for 1 1/2 to 5 minutes and reaches a maximum height of from 90 to 184 feet and is the biggest regular geyser. Old Faithful has been erupting in nearly the same fashion throughout the recorded history of the park.
Don and I walked out to the benches ringing the geyser and made our way around to where the ranger was giving a talk on the geyser. One interesting fact, the benches around the geyser are over 300 feet from Old Faithful but with nothing to judge the distance by, it's hard to realize just how big the geyser is when it is erupting. While we were waiting, the sun came out and it started to snow! Finally the eruption started and we were treated to a solid three minute show!
Next, Don and I hiked around the Upper Geyser Basin to see the different thermal features around Old Faithful. We saw both the Pump and Plume geyser erupting while walking along the boardwalk north of Old Faithful. This is a cluster of thermal features that includes Castle Geyser, Daisy Geyser, Grand Geyser and the Riverside Geyser. On the other side of Geyser Hill is the Giantess Geyser. It only erupts a few times each year, but rises higher in its spouts than Old Faithful. Finally, we got a text message from Tina wanting to know when we'd be done, so it was time to go back. We'd seen all we could without some major hiking and were pleased with our outing. Once back at the lodge we regrouped and got in the car for the drive back to camp.
Arriving home we walked all the dogs then hopped back in the car for the drive to town and dinner. We ended up at Grizzly Bear BBQ on Canyon. Don ordered Deep Fried Pickles for everybody to try. They were HOT!! I ended up being the only one who liked them - heh, heh! Tina had Ribs, Diane had Brisket, Don had Pulled Beef and I had Pulled Pork. With our sides we all had plenty to eat and it was all very good.
After dinner we came over to our place and played Attack UNO. I won the first two games then everybody ganged up on me for the third which Diane won. We quit about 9:30 PM, then Tina and I gave Don his gift bag of goodies - a UFO Drivers License, a small Whoooopie Cushion, a Stained Glass Tulip (inside joke) and a slice of the Celestine Pool captured in rock crystal. Earlier that morning, Don had given me a small rubber Donkey from Shrek.... and away we go!
With hugs we said goodnight and see you in the morning.
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