Friday June 4, 2010 - Yellowstone National Park

We finally made it to Yellowstone National Park today. We didn't exactly get an early start, but we decided that it would be better to do it today rather than try again on Saturday. It was raining steadily the entire drive up and into the park. It took us about 2.5 hours to get to Old Faithful from Jackson. To say the scenery was impressive is a bit of an understatement. What impressed me the most, I think, were the various rivers and creeks that we crossed, filled with winter runoff. I don't think the park as a whole matches the Tetons in sheer stunning beauty, but that sounds like a harsher critique than it really is. Yellowstone is amazing, but in a different way - perhaps in the diversity of types of beauty. For us, that meant mainly the various thermal features of the southern part of the park.

We reached Old Faithful first, and having just missed the last eruption, grabbed a bite to eat. On the way back to watch Old Faithful, I was thrilled to see several yurts set up. I have no idea what they were for, but they clearly meant business. Since I have a strange attraction to yurts, I had to take a picture.

We went back out to watch, and were some of the first people to begin assembling - mostly because it was about 45 degrees and raining steadily. There was a park ranger who began giving a talk about the nature of the various thermal features in the park. He talked about what a geyser is and why it is and how Yellowstone has more of them than anywhere else in the world. I won't replicate all of his talk here - you can Google it if you're interested. Suffice to say, his talk kept us occupied and our minds off the cold and wet until Old Faithful finally decided to blow.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that I thought it was a little anticlimactic. But the kids were very impressed, and now we can say that we've seen Old Faithful do it's thing.

We went on to see the Midway Geyser Basin and Fountain Paint Pots. These were definitely cooler than Old Faithful itself, and the kids were just delirious with excitement at walking through the fog and mist or watching bubbling pools of water or mud. What an amazing world God has made!