Right when you enter the park you follow the Madison River. We were only like three miles into the park and just had to pull over and start taking pictures. The girls were so excited to see their first herd of buffalo.
The drive along the river was so cool. So much wildlife to see and the greenery was beautiful. Thankfully, there are lots of turnouts for cars so you can stop and take pictures or get out and walk around.
With little, to no cell service we made our game plan before we left the cabin since we were all in three different cars. First stop: Lower Geyser Basin. The most popular place to stop here is the Fountain Paint Pot area, to walk along the Fountain Paint Pot Trail. This place was so cool. (I have a feeling I'll be saying words like cool, awesome, beautiful and spectacular a lot for this trip.)
Everywhere we went today had nice boardwalks to walk on, for obvious reasons. You don't want to step where you might die and it helps preserve and protect the natural resources and lifeforms. The park was busy but I think we got an early enough start to beat the huge crowds.
Silex Spring was our first hot springs we came across. It was a brilliant blue in the middle.
The girls got their first real good whiff of what hot springs smell like. They weren't impressed with the rotten-egg smell. Mmm...sulfur.
The Fountain Paint Pots were entertaining to watch as they bubbled endlessly.
Not a very good picture with their faces in shadow but they were having the time of their life.
I totally forgot to mention Darron's Christmas gift to all of us last year. He had these awesome shirts made for our family reunion.
Front:
Back (Woolley family motto and crest):
Pretty cool, huh? Now you understand why we are all wearing the same shirt in the pictures today. We asked a fellow tourist to take our picture. Everyone is there, you just can't see everyone's faces.
Mark, Calista, Téa and Piper all hanging out by Silex Spring.
The Red Spouter fumarole was cool. It kind of looks like a geyser because of the puddle of water that forms, but it's actually a steam vent.
Apparently it was a great napping place for Mr. Buffalo.
He was hanging out between two fumaroles, kind of close to the boardwalk. We went the long way around. I wasn't taking any chances of Mr. Buffalo getting spooked and charging into the crowd. This was the closest I was willing to get. (The brown lump in the middle of the picture is the buffalo, all curled up taking a nap).
Just on the other side of the boardwalk is Leather Pool. I love all the different colors of the hot springs.
Clepsydra Geyser is in the background over Mark's right shoulder.
This is a little better picture of it.
There were quite a few geysers to see as you finished the loop around the Fountain Paint Pot Trail. Only Clepsydra was active at the time. I can't remember which geyser this one is (might be Fountain Geyser), but it looked cool dormant. The surrounding area looked like it was covered in snow, whereas just a hundred yards away there is vegetation. So weird.
Celestine Pool. Not as cool as Silex Spring but still neat.
Our next stop was Midway Geyser Basin. This picture is of the Firehole River, just down stream of the geysers we were there to see. It looks totally untouched by humans.
This is a picture of Firehole River where Excelsior Geyser Crater runs over the hill into the river.
Same river, just a picture from the bridge we crossed over to see Grand Prismatic Spring, Excelsior Geyser Basin, Turquoise Pool and Opal Pool.
Again, I was amazed at the colors created by the hot springs. Well, I guess created by the microbes that live in the hot springs.
This was Turquoise Pool. Looks like a lovely swimming hole, right? Ha!
I remembered to get a few pictures of Darron's family. My kids were running around with cousins so it was difficult to get pictures of them.
Piper actually stayed pretty close to either me or Mark. We had a long talk about safety on the drive up to Yellowstone a few days ago. My biggest fear is one of my kids falling into a hot spring. I think we instilled enough fear to make them super cautious.
This was Opal Pool. Boring, right? Barely any water.
The Grand Prismatic Spring was by far the coolest thing we saw in Midway Geyser Basin. The colors were spectacular.
The steam coming off the Grand Prismatic looked like it had color (Seriously, so cool!). There was even a, should I say 'lively' discussion, between Darron and VaLynn about the steam being colored or not. It was entertaining.
I couldn't take enough pictures of it. Mark took a ton on his phone, too.
*Side note: I'm not sure why mom and dad aren't in any of these photos. I guess they were either ahead or behind us. Here's almost everyone checking out Excelsior Geyser Crater. Great 'behind' shot.
I haven't had my new iPhone 6s for very long. I found a cool feature on it today...panorama! I had a lot of fun with it. Too bad the tourist lady wouldn't move so her big hat got in my picture.
Our last stop of the day was in Upper Geyser Basin to see Old Faithful Geyser. And here was where we found the hoards of people. Just as we drove in we caught a glimpse of Old Faithful erupting. Good thing it's 'Old Faithful' and we knew it would erupt again later. Also a good thing because it took forever to find a parking spot. Papa got a great spot, using his handicap parking sticker.
The next 'show' for Old Faithful wasn't for a while so we all had a nice break in the shade and brought out sack lunches just outside of the Old Faithful Visitor's Center. From here we split up. Nonna, Papa, VaLynn and Grant went inside the Visitor's Center and watched a short film about the geyser. The rest of us headed to the Old Faithful General Store for some ice cream and to peruse the souvenirs (of course).
With full bellies, we headed to find a seat to watch the eruption. Little did we know that there would be two eruptions! Just as Old Faithful was starting up, Calista's nose started bleeding...a lot! Poor Mark was in range of it, too. Hopefully the cabin has some stain remover. Thankfully we had one tissue on hand for her to use until Old Faithful stopped so we could then take her to the bathroom to wash up. Poor kid.
Why am I so good at getting people's heads in my pictures? This guy would not move either.
We found a cool sign for family pictures. Actually, this one was taken before Old Faithful erupted. I can tell because Piper is still eating her ice cream cone.
The girls insisted the parents get a picture by themselves.
Family photo.
Group photo. And proof that my mom and dad were there!
We had a long day of walking around seeing the coolest geysers, fumaroles, hot springs and mud pots. We decided it was time to head back to the cabin for an early dinner and some down time. As we headed back we stopped quite a bit along the side of the road whenever we saw cool wildlife or a pretty scenic area. This place was one of my favorites. I don't even know exactly where it was. Somewhere along Grand Loop Road (the road that loops around Yellowstone) and next to Firehole River.
It's such a peaceful place. I'm just as excited for tomorrow's adventures!
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