Saturday - July 31, 1982 - 8:00 am M.D.T.
Had breakfast in the Lodge restuarant. The pankcakes were very good. Finally we are on the road in Yellowstone. We are making several stops for pictures. The scenery is breath taking. Stopped at Roosevelt Lodge for lunch. The power was out and they were barbequeing the hamburgers for lunch. It was really tasty. But back to Yellowstone, it is 6:45 pm M.D.T. and we have just left Old Faithful. I will write more about that later because I want to keep today in chronological order and I have to find the Yellowstone map so I can remember all the stops we made. We entered Y.N.P. at the East Entrance (Alt. 6,951 ft.). Our first quick stop was Sylvan Pass. Took some pictures so I will probably remember more about it when I see them.
Matthew Just chilling outside the cabin we stayed in.
Next stop was the mud volcano. Milton spotted a deer and high tailed it after him. Larry Matt and I walked around these bubbling mud holes. Matt decided he would like to tape the noise it made so we got the movie camera and tape recorder. This is where Larry discovers camera is broken. So what else is new? Going around a little further, we saw a Bull Buffalo sunning himself quite close to the path we were on. Quite relieved to find he did not think we would make tasty 'people burgers'. It's a little unnerving to realize there is absolutely nothing between you and him if he should decide to play 'chicken' with you. Can you guess who would win?
I would just like to make one point with this picture. As noted in the journal, I had sped on ahead of the family and was the only one with a slide camera at the mud volcano. I never saw the buffalo in this shot. I took the pictures, yes, but I was just snapping away all the way around. When everyone caught up with me back at the car, they told me about the big fella, and I said "What buffalo????" Imagine my surprise when we got home and saw the pictures. LOL!
The next stop was an area called the Canyon. First stop at 'Artist Point'. Magnificent view of Falls. I was a little nervous looking out but Larry held on to me. Milton had no problem at all. He was too busy snapping pictures. Please note, I have a great fear of heights. I always have. Many years later, I found out I have positional vertigo and I get dizzy easily. Unless I have a camera in my hands, apparently.
At Upper Falls you stood so close to the falls you could almost touch them.
Proceeding on we decided it was about time for lunch. (Has anyone else noticed yet how much of the time was spent eating?) We went to the Tower, but they had a power outage and the menu was very limited, so we went to Roosevelt. They also had an outage, but were barbequeing the food and it was really tasty. But it did eat up a lot of time (excuse the pun).
At Mammoth Hot Springs, Milton took off and we followed. But he got so far ahead we lost sight of him. (What can I say, I'm an impatient sightseer.) Matthew and I continued to walk to the upper parking lot while Larry went back down to get the car and meet us. Meanwhile we did not run into Milton. We did see two exhausted people by the time Matt and I reached the top. Larry met us and then we had to drive back down the mountain to find Milton. We got back about the same time he returned. He didn't even know we had left. (I'm such a trouble maker.)
Well, at least I hadn't lost sight of them. Two yellow hats are hard to miss. ROFL.
The next major stop was the paint pots. The colors were caused by the minerals and algae in the water. These hot springs have a terrible odor. Remember Chemisty I and the smell of rotten eggs whenever sulfur was present? Well these springs are loaded with sulfur. I will refrain from describing the smell!
This is a VERY important picture that we long ago decided MUST be a part of any presentation we do about this trip. It signifies a prinicple of the National Park Service that everyone should understand. "Take only pictures, leave only footprints." If something dies by the side of the path, it's left there to be dealt with naturally by the environment.
We arrived at Old Faithful just a few minutes after the 4:45 eruption. The next was due at 6:06 so we had a snack (delicious double ice cream cones). Then we walked over to the geyser and walked around. The area around it is all boardwalk with double rows of benches. Larry wanted a certain position so he could capture the rainbow when it shot up. 6:06 came and went and Old Faithful was quiet. Every once in a while she puffed smoke so everyone would get excited, but nothing happened. Finally, around 6:13 it spurted a little, then a little more until it finally decided 'now is the time.' And then up it went. Rainbow and all, with everyone properly appreciating the wonders of nature. Even a small eruption like this is awsome.
I would love to expand on my narrative, but I am already a day behind in this log.
Allow me to expand a small bit on Mom's narrative. It's important to understand that Old Faithful is NOT the most regular geyser in Yellowstone, nor is it the biggest. There are some that are much bigger, but the are constantly going. There are some that are much more regular, but only go off every 100 years. Old Faithful's claim to fame is that it is a reasonably large geyser that goes of at reasonably regular intervals. The view was spectacular, and we were all very grateful to Dad for making the effort to get us in the right location. Judge his efforts from the pictures yourself.
Sputter...sputter.
Annnnnd.....NOW!
Yep, that was worth it. :)