Yellowstone!

The dad had been to Yellowstone twice as a kid.  I had never been there, so we decided that since we were so close, that we would go spend the day there.  What a great day!  The west gate had just opened up for the season the Friday before we went.  The other gets weren't yet open.  It was still cold, but there were very few cars, vans, campers, cyclists... while we were there.  The dad said when he went as a kid, they went in the summer, and the roads were packed with vehicles.  It was hard to see the geysers, springs, mudpots, etc., because there were so doggone many tourists.  We picked a great time to go!

This was the first thing we saw after driving in through tall pines on either side of the road for the first 10 miles or so.  Bison!  (We thought it was buffalo until we read the Yellowstone guides.  Buffalo don't actually live here in the United States.  Early settlers thought they resembled buffalo, so they called them that.  They are actually Bison.  There you go, you Trivia Crack players.

We were in bison heaven.  The big old fellas didn't even bat an eye at us.  They didn't seem to care at all.

As we drove further into Yellowstone, we started seeing places like this where gasses and vapors were pouring out of cracks and bubbling springs.

When we got to the Old Faithful Visitor's center, there was a sign in the window  that said Old Faithful would be erupting at 10:18 plus or minus ten minutes.  We got there at 10:18, so we hustled out and saw her just as she was starting to erupt.

In the background, you can see the gasses that kept coming after the eruption was over.  We decided we wanted to see her erupt again, so we took the geyser walk around the area while we were waiting the hour and a half until she went off again.

This geyser is called The Castle.  We got there just as she started to go off.  We found out that she goes off every fourteen hours or so.  Talk about lucky timing!  She erupted water for about 20 minutes, and then she belched gasses for another 40 minutes.

All arond The Castle, there were bubbling hot pools of water.

While we were watching The Castle, The Beehive Geyser went off across the basin.  You can see it in the background.  It goes off about every twenty-four hours.  Again, talk about perfect timing!

In this shot, The Castle is up close, and The Beehive is in the background.  What a sight!

This is The Beehive cone after the eruption ended.

This is Old Faithful the second time we saw her blow.

As we drove along to our next spot, we came across another herd.

This is how close one got to our pick-up.  I had the window open, and I would have touched it if we hadn't just read a Good-idea, Bad-idea book in the Visitor's Center.  Touching the bison wan't just listed as a bad idea--it was listed as a very bad idea, so I didn't touch it.  I sure wanted to, though.

This is Gibbon Falls

I kind of felt like I felt when we were walking across the Patomac River in DC.  I didn't want Dad to get too close to the edge.  And you can rest assured that I didn't get too close, either.  Sure was amazing, though.

The main thing the dad wanted to see, other than Old Faithful, was mud pots.  That is what made the biggest impact on him as a child.  Sadly, the main mud pot area was closed because they were putting in new board walks all around it.  But this one was open!

Can you see the mud bubbling and blooping up?

We saw a lot of this at Yellowstone, too!

After our great day, it was time to head back for Rexburg!