Thursday, June 16th
We were headed back to the park for the day. We quickly learned that we didn't pick the best place to stay because the drive back into Yellowstone was quite the drive. We had to drive through Grand Teton National Park first. It was about an hour just to get to Yellowstone's gate and then another 1/2 - 1 hour to get to anything you wanted to see. It made the day just that much longer but oh well. What were we going to do, not go? So off we went.
We decided that today we would explore the road on the west side coming up from the south entrance.
We stopped and looked at this beautiful waterfall along the road.
When we were getting back in the car I looked behind us and saw this beautiful view.
Have I mentioned yet just how beautiful is it out there?
Our first stop was Old Faithful. We got lucky because it's next eruption time was only 30 minutes away. We headed out and got seats.
It gave us some teaser "spits" and then it finally went:
It is just amazing to me that all this activity is going on just below the surface. Incredible.
We then headed over to the gift shop and did a little shopping. Then on the way back to the car we spotted this little moose!
Cutest little moose ever!
We then headed up the road all the way to Madison and turned around to see everything on the way back down. We took the Firehole Canyon Drive. It goes right along a river.
We stopped at this outlook and Trevor said "take some pictures of me." He then posed really cute.
Then he says "ok, now some funny ones!"
He did not disappoint!
We then found this cute little spot for lunch.
On the way out we spotted this swan.
Our next stop was Fountain Paintpots. As soon as Kurt got out of his truck, a lady came up to him, almost in tears, asking for help. A few cars had pulled off the asphalt to park so she had done the same. Unfortunately, where she did it, it was a little steeper than she realized and she couldn't get her car back on the road so our guys jumped to her rescue.
We were grateful to be able to help her. She was so upset but was so relieved when we got her car out.
Once we got her back on the road, we headed in to more amazingness.
Bubbly, bubbly mud!
This one made a huge hissing sound. It was pretty cool.
T wanted to see if he could see what was making the hissing noise.
Then we were off to Midway Geyser Basin.
This is one of the spots where the hot water runs into the river.
Amazing, beautiful colors.
The day we went was a little colder so the steam coming off the water was a lot more and made it harder to see the colors. It is definitely better to try to go on warmer days so the steam doesn't block your view.
This pool was completely covered with steam. We could just see a hint of blue in there and then all of the sudden the wind and steam cooperated and we got a peak!
The steam was blowing across the walkway at some spots and made it hard to see.
The Grand Prismatic. It was a little steamy too but you could see the colors reflecting up into the steam.
Then we were off to Biscuit Basin. Kayla had seen a picture of a pool in the museum and she really wanted to find it. Well, we happened to stumble upon it at Biscuit Basin. It is called Sapphire Pool and is AMAZING! I mean AMAZING AMAZING! It was by far our favorite. The color in the pool is just so vibrant. So beautiful. I told Kurt that if we ever built a pool, I wanted it to be this color.
Our next stop of the day was Black Sand Basin. By this point, most of our group was tired and didn't want to get out and walk anymore so a few of us hardcore people ran it really quick.
On our way back out, we stopped at Old Faithful for a potty break. There was a ranger out with some animal stuff. We stopped to check it out.
We had heard about a Huckleberry milkshake that was amazing so we headed back to the gift shop to get some of those. But we were mistaken, they were over at the Inn so we walked all the way back over there. It was a pretty incredible building.
Check out the inside:
Super cool.
Well it turned out they didn't have the milkshake either. I can't remember the reason now. Everyone decided to get ice cream instead. We were pretty exhausted from our adventures that day and needed a pick-me-up to help us back to camp (which was still about 2 hours away) and make dinner.
On our way back we stopped for a potty break and found this awesome marina. We also discovered a pizza parlor so we decided that pizza would be for dinner. Not cooking sounded pretty darn good!
By the time we got back to camp, everyone was wiped out! T didn't even stir when we moved him from the truck to the trailer.
It was another amazing (and exhausting) day!
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