Yellowstone and Old Faithful - Inn and Erupting

Off to Yellowstone – Overnight at the Old Faithful Inn

We woke early, had breakfast and began the journey into Yellowstone. From our hotel, the south entrance to Yellowstone National Park is about an 1 ½  hours away. Old Faithful is about another 1- 2 hours.  We couldn’t check into the Inn until 4:00, so we had lots of time for exploring.

We stopped for the obligatory signs…

We had been to this part of Yellowstone before, so we knew what we wanted to see, and what we had skipped before that we wanted to see this time. We bypassed the exit for Old Faithful, and headed on towards Grand Prismatic Spring. It was still early and we knew we wouldn't be able to check in yet, and it would still be crowded...

Grand Prismatic Spring was something that we missed last time we visited...

 

Here's the info...if you can click on it to enlarge the words...

 We looked at some of the other geysers as we were approaching it....really beautiful and surreal, when you think about holes in the earth and all of this basically happening right under your feet.

water is pretty but scalding hot!

If the wind blew in the "wrong" direction, you got a nose full of sulfur...

Us in front of Grand Prismatic Spring...

Lots of sulfur coming our way....

Don being surrounded by "Eau de Rotten Eggs."

Always pushing the ticket!

Surprise!!!!

We left the Grand Prismatic Spring area and drove further north to Fountain Paint Pots...I love this area...bubbling mud! It just amazes me still - what mother nature is able to do...

It is really boiling.....amazing!

caught a bubble in the boil

boiling and bubbling...

another geyser near the paint pots

After exploring the paint pot area - we backtracked towards Old Faithful and made a final stop at Biscuit Basin. We had been there 3 years ago and remembered a really pretty hot springs pool that we wanted to see again.

 

 We wanted to get back to Biscuit Basin because recently I found a picture from our first Yellowstone trip in 2009, and we wanted to recreate that picture on this trip...

 

 

2012 - same spot...yes, same shirts on purpose :)

2009 - 3 years ago.....

We then headed to Old Faithful. I was excited about this because we were staying at the Inn. We visited during our last trip, but this time we were "sleeping over." We were in the East Wing - the newer wing - the original lodge was built around 1903 and the East and West wings were built around 1913ish. The wings had private baths in the room and the original Inn rooms had small rooms with showers and baths down the hall. The girls were a little disturbed by that idea...I told them, "wait till dorm life." :)

The Wilderness Lodge at Disney World is modeled after the Old Faithful Inn!

It didn't take long to make our room feel like home...

see those big trees.....Old Faithful is RIGHT behind them, perfect view if the trees weren't there!

We found our room, Don took a nap and the girls and I went to the gift shop and explored.....We had perfect timing and got to see Old Faithful erupt form the second floor deck of the Inn.

 We then went to dinner at the restaurant on site, and went outside later. We had heard stories and seen the signs to watch out for Bison and other wildlife, but I didn't see how it was possible with all the people wandering around. It was cold out, so the girls and I left Old Faithful to go get hoodies and Don went to the car to get his tripod for evening pics of Old Faithful. As we were walking back along the sidewalk....lo and behold, there was a lonely BIG bison wandering the grounds of Old Faithful. We weren't gone 10 minutes - he just appeared (or walked very fast) - Don was right there photographing him - and right in his path....after some encouragement, Don moved and we watched this beast lumber down into the parking lot. Amazing!!

walking towards the parking lot....CRAZY!!

Old Faithful bubbling...

As the sun was starting to go down - we watched Old Faithful erupt in all its glory!!

The girls and I headed back to the room to go to bed - Don came back with us and then headed back out to get Old Faithful erupting in darkness with the full moon. It erupts every 90 minutes or so. Very cool!!

one of Don's pics with the night sky and stars...

Don returned to the room at around 11:30 p.m. and he woke at 6:00 to get sunrise Old Faithful pictures, and then we met him for breakfast and we checked out of the Inn and continued on our way!

Here are 3 of Don's pics of Old Faithful with the sun rising right behind it.....

We were on the road by 8:30 a.m. and heading on through Yellowstone to our little piece of paradise on top of a mountain in Gardiner, Montana.....

Stay tuned for that adventure!!