I got soaked by a geyser this morning! The experience was worth every second of the two hours I waited to watch Great Fountain Geyser erupt. And just like seeing the bear, I couldn’t stop smiling afterwards. You’ll have to keep reading to find out how it happened (no, it wasn’t planned!).
I managed to sleep a little later this morning and fueled up on a chocolate chip pancake (the waitress said it was plate sized so I only ordered one; she and I clearly have different definitions of “plate sized”) at Running Bear Pancake House in West Yellowstone before heading into the park.
My plan for today was to explore the other geyser areas I didn’t see yesterday. First up was the Lower Geyser Basin, a collection of springs, mud pots, and geysers. Since the steam was so heavy, it was hard to really see and capture the colors of the pools. Clepsydra Geyser was erupting almost constantly during my visit and the steam from that really stood out against the deep blue sky.
Next was a walk around the Midway Geyser Basin, where the star of the show is Grand Prismatic Spring. It’s hard to really see the colors well from the boardwalk, and the steam didn’t help, but I would have a better vantage point for the deep blue spring later on.
All I knew about Great Fountain Geyser was that it was predicted to erupt at 10PM last night (+/- 2 hours) and it is typically about 12 hours between eruptions. On my last visit to Yellowstone, I was at Great Fountain Geyser at dusk and my picture from that visit is still one of my favorites. It was about 9:15AM when I arrived this morning. Fortunately, there was a gentleman from New Hampshire sitting nearby who had seen it erupt last night and said it would probably be another hour or so until it erupted this morning. He promised an incredible show and buildup and said he just had to be there to see it again. Since I had nowhere else to be, I settled in on a bench and just soaked in the incredible scenery. Great Fountain has a series of photogenic terraces surrounding it and I had the viewing area pretty much to myself for quite a while.
Around 9:45, I started hearing the trickle of water running off the Geyser and another gentleman said the predicted eruption would be 11:10AM. He explained that once the water starts overflowing the basin, it is about 80-90 minutes until the full eruption. It wasn’t long before the water started slowly bubbling in places around the edges of the basin. It would bubble up quite a bit and then go back down. It did that over and over until about 11AM when it started bubbling up higher.
After a couple of “false starts”, all of a sudden the water and steam started shooting straight up into the air. The wind was blowing in the direction of the area where I was sitting and a wall of water and steam came straight at me and everyone around me. People started grabbing their things and running away. I did too, of course, but not before being doused by the geyser water. It was a thrilling experience, despite the wet hair and clothes! When I look back on this trip in years to come, I know this will be one of my fondest memories.
I stayed for a while longer to watch the smaller eruptions continue, then left for my next destination: the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook. To get there, you park in the Fairy Falls parking lot and hike up 0.8 miles to the viewing platform. It was flat most of the way until the final upward push, and wow… what a view from the top!
I made a quick stop at Biscuit Basin, which was a short boardwalk loop around some pools and a small geyser. My final stop for the day was back at Old Faithful. I decided I wanted to watch it like a tourist and sit on the benches right in front. My favorite part was hearing the crowd ooh and aah as it erupted. One person walking out said it was just like kids watching fireworks!
Dinner tonight was at Las Palmitas, which is a school bus turned food truck serving a menu of Mexican food. The front half of the bus is the ordering area while the back half is the kitchen. I’m not much of a Mexican food eater, but my chicken quesadilla was one of the best I’ve ever had! I followed it up with a scoop of huckleberry ice cream from the nearby City Creamery.
Tomorrow I am off for more adventures in Yellowstone before heading south to Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole. I really don’t have a plan for seeing the sights in the Tetons, but I do have several specific activities I will be doing in the next few days. You’ll have to keep following along to find out about them!
Traveling with Laura 