July 22nd

Geyser Day

Or, if you talk to the kids: Bataan Death March Day

One thing we hate is crowds. We like to arrive at a destination as early as possible so that we are the only ones there. So, we got right up on Tuesday morning and headed over to the Old Faithful Village. We were about 2 miles away when we saw the geyser erupting through the trees...we just missed it by about 5 minutes. The good thing about Old Faithful...you know it's going to erupt again in 90 minutes. We decided to look around the village and hang out and wait for the 9:30 "show." The Old Faithful Inn was amazing! It is a huge log cabin. It was fun to explore. We also were able to log in an Earth geocache. In National Parks, the rangers don't want geocachers running around off trails looking under rocks, so they ask that only Earth caches be placed. An Earth cache involves taking a picture with an object or answering questions to prove that you found the location. We did this all over the park, finding about a half dozen! Anyway, at 9:30, we were on location to see the eruption. It was pretty cool! After the eruption, we started around the geyser basin to see the rest of the area. There are 1/5th of the worlds geysers located in this area. Some are holes in the ground. Others are beautiful hot colorful pools. I kept wanting to reach down and touch the water to see if it really was as hot as they said...but I resisted the urge.

We had just started our walk when a man RAN by us shouting, "The Beehive will erupt in 10-15 minutes!" All of a sudden, people started RUNNING by us. They came out of no-where! So, we walk over...it was only 3 geysers away from where we were standing...and we sit down to wait. As we sat, I overheard the LOUD conversations from the now huge group of people that obviously know each other. I learned enough to put together some information:

Did you know that there is a group of people that go to Yellowstone every year for vacation just to volunteer to watch and help predict eruptions? They call themselves "Geyser Gazers." They even have their own Society! They apparently have gathered enough information to know when certain geysers will erupt. For example: the beehive. There is a small geyser in front that they call the "indicator." When it erupts, they know that the beehive will erupt in 10-15 minutes. Also gathered from overhearing their conversations: they all have walkie-talkies. They each have designated "posts" (we saw them all day long) and when the sign that a geyser will erupt happens, they call each other on the walkie-talkies and they all come running. The one guy Jim struck up a conversation with has been doing this for 17 years STRAIGHT. So, if you are in need of something to do every summer, you too can sign up to watch geysers all day...

With that mocked, watching the BeeHive erupt was VERY cool. It only erupts every 22 hours or so. We were there at the perfect time! We took a ton of pictures. I did also take a short video...but didn't remember we had the capability until the end. Also, you can hear Teresa in the background complaining she didn't feel good...



After watching the beehive, we continued our journey around the geyser basin. We took a TON of pictures of all the beautiful hot pools. I COULD post them all...about 300...but I won't. If you REALLY want to see them, I plan on uploading them to shutterfly when I get a chance and I COULD send you the link. Just let me know. It was amazing. Here is one picture of us looking at the morning glory pool. Every pool was different. Their colors were determined by temperature. At different temperatures, different bacterias grow, changing the color of the pools. They were blue or green or yellow or orange or brown or black. It was truly amazing.

After that 3.5 mile hike, the kids were pretty wiped out. We ate our picnic lunch and then took a couple of the driving tours listed in our awesome guide book. We stopped at a few more geyser areas and Firehole falls. There were people in this parking area that were VERY excited to see our Hawaii plates...and where taking pictures of our plates! I'm sure you'll see them posted on the web somewhere ;)

After the Firehole falls, we drove to the Midway Geyser Basin. Here was located my favorite formation of all. The pictures don't quite capture the "amazingness" of this pool. It's called the Grand Prismatic Springs. It's HUGE. From our vantage point, there was NO WAY to take a picture of it to capture all of it at once. There are pictures taken from helicopters that you can purchase at the gift shop, of course. Every color of the rainbow was present. The camera didn't do a very good job of showing that. When we approached the pool, mist was coming off the pool in blue and purple. It was amazing.

After this, the kids (and the grown-ups) were pretty tired, so we headed back to Grant Village, stopping at Isa Lake to complete another geocache about the Continental Divide.

We ate dinner at a grill located in the general store. Then, we went to a Ranger Program about fires in Yellowstone at the Visitor Center. After the program, we went back to the general store for some ice cream. While we were ordering, Jim looked out the window and shouted "WOW!" Everyone went over to see: the most beautiful RAINBOW I think I have ever seen...and this is coming from someone who saw a rainbow almost every day for the past 3 years. It was a full DOUBLE rainbow. I ran out to the car to take some pictures. The workers in the store, who seemed to be mostly exchange students (would love to know how they recruit!) from Asian countries, were running outside as well. They were calling all their friends out from the back of the store and from behind the grill. Pretty much, everything stopped in the store so that EVERYONE could enjoy the rainbow. Not only was in the largest and brightest rainbow I have ever seen, it was also the longest lasting! It must have been there for 45 minutes!

ALOHA!