[covering Fri 9/10 thru Sat am 9/11; We're currently in Bozeman, MT, staying with friends - I'm trying to catch up after 5 days with little/no cell coverage - and no time to blog]
We were up by 6:30am, skipped coffee and breakfast, quickly packed up the van and were on the road by 7:15 for the ~30min drive to Yellowstone National Park. We have 5 nights planned in or near the park, spread across 4 different lodging locations, in the hopes of seeing as much of the vast park as possible. Got to the South park entrance at 7:45, then headed directly to Old Faithful, a pretty, hour-long drive, hoping to beat the crowds to this popular destination. Our plan worked perfectly. We pulled into the expansive parking lot at 8:45 and easily got a spot close to the geyser. Karri pulled up the park app on her phone and realized the next eruption was schedule for 8:53 (+/-10min), so we hustled over and found a viewing spot amongst a fairly small morning crowd, waited a few minutes before the show started.
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| Welcome! |
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| Right on schedule |
After the eruption, we walked to the Old Faithful Lodge to grab coffee and breakfast to-go (surprisingly good - excellent biscuits!), which we enjoyed on a bench next to Old Faithful, while we mapped out our plan for the day. After breakfast, we loaded up our backpacks with water, snacks, bear spray, etc., walked through the gorgeous Old Faithful Inn, then headed out on the Upper Geyser Basin trail.
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| Would love to stay here... maybe next time |
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| Fireplace and clock in the lobby of the Old Faithful Inn |
The Geyser Basin trail is a wooden boardwalk that winds through dozens of unique geysers, hot springs and thermal pools - all with great names. It was fascinating to see all the different colors and formations, and to listen to the gurgle of boiling water or the spray of erupting geysers. Our timing was fortunate, as we caught a second eruption of Old Faithful from the opposite side.
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| Tardy Geyser |
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| Chromatic Pool |
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| Steaming geyser run-off spilling into the Firehole River |
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| Upper Geyser Basin boardwalk |
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| Sapphire Pool |
The trail forms a loop, but we noticed at the far, northern end of the loop there was a short connector to the Mystic Falls trailhead, which was on our list of highly rated hikes - so off we went. The connecter was a half-mile dirt trail that passed more geysers and pools before crossing a road at the Mystic Falls trailhead. We headed up the loop trail, climbing about 900ft through tall pines, occasionally catching views back to the geyser basin. We were fortunate to reach a small clearing and notice Old Faithful erupting in the distance.
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| Old Faithful from the Mystic Falls trail |
The trail summits a small peak then starts to descend before reaching the viewpoint for beautiful Mystic Falls.
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| Mystic Falls |
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| Stopped for a snack at the base of Mystic Falls |
The rest of the loop provided great views of the Little Firehole River and several meadows where I felt sure we'd see a bear (nope). We got back to the trailhead, crossed the road, picked up the connector, then followed the remainder of the Geyser Basin loop trail back to the Old Faithful Inn, catching our first two (somewhat startling) bison sightings along the way, before finishing a great ~9mi combo-loop hike.
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| Bison lounging 20ft off the boardwalk |
Got back to the van just before 3pm. We were hungry and tired (and noticed we had intermittent cell coverage), so made a couple sandwiches, grabbed a couple beers from the cooler, walked back toward Old Faithful where we found rustic rocking chairs on the porch of an arts/gift shop - a perfect lunch spot. After lunch, I quickly wrapped up one of our Grand Teton posts, then we headed to the van to start driving to Madison Campground. We decided to stop at the Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook, parked and walked the boardwalk through a field of large and beautiful springs.
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| Exelsior Geyser Crater |
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| Grand Prismatic Spring |
We headed to the 300+ site Madison Campground and were pleasantly surprised to pull into a quiet and somewhat private site. Setup camp, poured cocktails, then sat down to a delicious meal of pasta with chicken-apple sausage and broccoli next to the campfire.
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| Essential provisions =) |
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| Dinner in Madison Campground |
Early to bed with plans to move on to the Canyon, Hayden Valley and the Lake regions of the park in the morning. Another great day of first-time sights and experiences!
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