Wednesday - our last day in Yellowstone and a lot still to see. We hadn't done any exploring of the geyser basins north of Old Faithful and we had a dinner appointment down in Jackson that we had to make. So that meant we had to get going and early!
Early turned out to be arriving at the Inn at eight for breakfast. We just don't get moving very quickly on these trips. After breakfast and a quick supply stop at the store we left Old Faithful and headed north; destination the Firehole drive and Great Fountain Geyser and the Fountain Paint pots.
Great Fountain geyser is currently unpredictable; we were hoping but were disappointed. But just down the road was White Dome geyser and it is very regular and would only require a maximum of 30 minutes to wait. But right after we got to it it started; what timing! A nice geyser that shot a jet up out of its dome. And then a bonus; Pink Cone geyser was erupting and it only goes off once a day.
Across the road from the Firehole drive is the parking lot for the Fountain Paint pots. And the lot was full; we had to circle around to find a spot. But there is enough turnover that we found a spot pretty quickly and set off, hoping to see some of the geysers around the pots. Devyn was fascinated by the mud pots; he has loved to watch them bubble and has wanted to spend the most time watching them.
There are a number of geysers at the pots, but only Twig and Clepsydra geysers were going. They were pretty awesome; Clepsydra pretty much is always erupting. It is amazing that such a concentration of geysers exists at Yellowstone; just one of these geysers anywhere else would be a big draw and there are hundreds here.
Down the road from the Lower Geyser basin are Midway, Biscuit, and Black Sand Geyser basins. At Midway is one of my favorite thermals: Grand Prismatic Spring. And it didn't disappoint today; the steam rising off the pool reflected all of the colors around the pool, from the orange and yellow edges through the green to the deep blue of the center. Corwyn really thought it was cool as well and accompanied me around the entire loop.
At Biscuit Basin Corwyn and I walked up to Sapphire Pool which was really deep blue and then found a group waiting at Jewel Geyser. Since it was supposed to erupt within 5 minutes we waited and were rewarded with a fun eruption. Jewel is one of the more regular geysers in the park and notwithstanding its smaller size was very nice to watch.
I talked Corwyn into walking the Black Sand Basin trail; it was a short walk but I don't know if I have ever walked it. Knowing the way I always wanted to hike every trail it is possible that I made Leslie go 23 years ago; if I did I don't remember it, though.
After leaving the geyser basins we headed south through Grand Teton National Park, taking the park road instead of the main highway. The road gets right up next to the mountains and they are really impressive, even more so from that close vantage point. Then we drove into Jackson and found our Motel, the Buckrail Lodge, an old log-cabin style motel that was well kept and in great condition. Just in time, too, as we were going to the Bar T 5 Dinner and show.
Not far from the motel was the old Bar T 5 corral; at the corral you climb onto horse-drawn covered wagons which haul you up Cache Creek canyon to where they do their show. Along the way we were ambushed by Indians (all they wanted was the brownies we were told) but were chased off by Buckskin the Mountain Man, who later made an appearance at the show and tried to run off with one of the young ladies. We ended up buying a CD of the entire show so that the kids will remember.
After 3 hours of food, fun, and shenanigans up the canyon we arrived back at the corral and headed back to the motel. A great day, full of fun, and a good way to end our last full day of vacation.
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