Old Faithful

Monday August 15, 2011
Bridge Bay Campground
Yellowstone National Park

Today was to be our visit to Old Faithful.
But when we went to eat breakfast,
the table fell off the wall.
Pretty funny now but not at the time.

The failure was due to the hinge being
screwed into a piece of flimsy plywood
that was only tacked to the bottom of the table
and half of the screws went into the crack
between the plywood and the frame and the
other half only penetrated 1/8th of an inch
beyond the plywood.
Accident waiting to happen.
First time I’ve been disappointed in Winnebago.

So Carrie and I got out our handy man
and turned him on.

The solution?  Glue and longer screws both of which
which the ever prepared handyman just happened to have.

Back to pie for breakfast
and watching our neighbors leave.
You probably can’t see their interesting masks.

After packing lunches we were off
for the 25 mile drive around the south
of the Figure 8 loop.

We crossed the Continental Divide

and its
2 Ocean Lake whose west end empties into
Firehold River on its way to the Missouri, Mississippi and
Gulf of Mexico.  The East end empties into the Snake River, the Columbia and the Pacific Ocean .

We went by the Old Faithful Lodge
to find out the times for
the Faithful Geyser to erupt.
It’s a lovely wilderness type lodge

with great ceiling lights (click to make the picture larger
so you can see the metal shapes)

a super fireplace

and large windows

through which you can watch Old Faithful erupt.

On to the brand new “Visitors Education Center”.

where we did find the predicted time
and watched their excellent film

The crowds were gathering so we took our positions.
That’s the Lodge on the left and the circle
of people goes as far around in that direction
as it did in this.

Faithful was just inside the window of 10 minutes
either side of 12:29PM blowing his top at 12:39

The crowd cheered, clapped and rushed off to
try to be first in line at the Lodge Cafeteria.

We headed the other way along the boardwalk to
see the other geysers and springs.
We walked up to Morning Glory pool in the Upper Geyser
Basin accessible from just behind Old Faithful
and the Lodge approximately 2.8 miles round trip.

The colors are caused by thermophiles, heat loving organisms.
Blue indicates the hottest waters up to 163 degrees F.
Yellow, green, rust, decreasing heat to brown-up to 122 degrees.

The colors, the shapes, the sounds,
it was all just so amazing.

The waters were crystal clear.

When we got to Morning Glory Pool,
it was so sad to read about people throwing
coins and trash into the pool and clogging it
up so that it has to be cleaned out every year.

and though it still beautiful it
is no longer
the blue it once was.

Morning Glory today.

We took today’s family photo by Morning Glory.

Carrie has a life long friend named Emma
whom we all love.  She is now Dr. Daisy.  I’m posting this
picture of Daisy Geyser in hopes she will see it
and smile.

It took us just over 3 hours to cover
our 2.8 mile course but of we
are definite dawdlers.  Here is
just a selection from the hundreds of
pictures taken between the 3 of us.
Click on any of the pictures to make them larger.

 

Here is  the river into which all this hot water
flows appropriately named
the Firehole river

One bit of advice, if you can,
don’t go out to see this walk before
4pm, the sun will make it much harder
for you to get good color.

On the way back, we went by the Old Faithful Inn
built in 1903. 
From the second story deck, you can watch
Old Faithful Geyser erupt.

The building is made entirely of wood and is
4 stories tall.  Pretty dark inside.  Difficult picture taking.

It has a lovely dining room

and 4 story bay windows on the ends.

But this was my favorite part

When we finally started back to the
car Old Faithful was erupting again.

It got this fan’s attention.

 

I’ll close with the shirt of the day.
In case you can’t read it,
If God wanted us to be vegetarians…….
He would have made broccoli more fun to shoot.

Ain't we got fun!!!