Tag: hot springs

Posted in: Exploring Wyoming, Hiking, National Parks, Sightseeing

Upper Geyser Basin

Written by tepetravels

The boys and I headed up towards Old Faithful this morning. There was some traffic due to construction, so it took a little longer than the 1.5 hours I thought it would. We finally saw our first bear! I think it was an adolescent black bear. He’s been the only bear so far that we have seen.

We saw the Crested Pool, Sawmill Geyser, Old Tardy Geyser, Churn Geyser, Grand Geyser, and Castle Geyser. We didn’t know before we arrived, but Castle Geyser was due to erupt within the hour, so we sat and waited.

It was amazing. There were a few small bursts and puffs of steam before the large eruption. It can last up to 20 minutes and goes off about every 14 hours. We only saw about 10 minutes of it before Nick got too antsy after waiting for so long and sitting in the sun. As we were driving away to make sure we made it back in time for guitar lessons, it was still erupting!

I could have sat there the entire time watching. The Yellowstone National Park Service app has a geyser eruption time prediction (+/- 45 minutes) which would have been smart of me to check beforehand. It was an amazing thing to see and I liked it better than Old Faithful. There is one side that is smooth, while the other side is a little rougher and looks like it has steps. It changes the appearance of the water flow depending on which side you view it from.

If you are up by Old Faithful, I would definitely try to time it so you can see Castle Geyser erupt. If you are by the North Entrance heading into the park, go early in the morning. The steam from the hot springs and geysers is multiplied in the cooler air and is really neat to see.

Posted in: Animal Sightings, Exploring Montana, Exploring Wyoming, Hiking, National Parks, Sightseeing

July 22: The Three Explorers

Written by tepetravels

Ben has work pretty much all day, including a stint this evening, so it just the boys and I going out to the park today.

The boys and I began our morning by going into Yellowstone. We started with the Artists’ Paintpot. We saw several hot springs, a few small geysers, and the mud pots. Even if you couldn’t see the activity because the water or mud was too far down in the hole, you could hear it steaming and/or gurgling! It was pretty cool. The colors were once again great: a few reds and blues. The mud pots though…those I think were my favorite there. You could hear the burble…plop sounds as bubbles formed and erupted.

It was an easy hike in, about a mile I think, pretty flat and fine gravel/sand for the trail.

Next, we went to the Norris Basin Geyser area. This was amazing. Parts wandered through woods, other spots were super stark with dead trees. I wish we could have spent more time there. We may go back because we only got part of the trail done. We had really good timing today though, because big groups came in as we were leaving. Leaving the Norris parking lot, I think we must have passed a hundred cars waiting in line.

For the long meeting tonight, Ben was setting up in the living/kitchen area. The boys and I headed into town. We picked out t-shirts for both of them, I got a coffee (iced because walking around in 90 degree heat with hot coffee is a little much even for me!), and we tried huckleberry ice cream from a little stand. It was delicious!

Posted in: Exploring Montana, Exploring Wyoming, Hiking, National Parks, Sightseeing, YouTube Video Link

July 21, 2020: Exploring Town, Bison Burgers, Old Faithful & Grand Prismatic Spring

Written by tepetravels 5 Comments on July 21, 2020: Exploring Town, Bison Burgers, Old Faithful & Grand Prismatic Spring

The boys and I took it easy this morning and explored the town of Gardiner, MT a little bit.

We found an amazing T-shirt shop (OutWest T’s) that carried socks, t-shirts, pajamas, hoodies, hats… I bought a keychain and a small jar of Huckleberry jam. There is a T-Shirt there that I may go back and buy for Nick. They had so many funny designs. They were really nice and explained huckleberries to the boys. Huckleberries are similar in shape to blueberries, but a little smaller. They grow wild, cannot be cultivated, and do not last long once picked. Which is why you see more products with huckleberry in them, than fresh huckleberries for sale. We tried a hard candy and ice cream sandwiches for the boys. Both were a big success.

We mailed some postcards, stopped at a bookstore/coffee shop, and got some groceries before heading home. The bookstore looked like it had nice breakfast sandwiches and they had a frozen coffee (they call it blended). Not a lot of kid books for the boys though, mostly adult and some little kid books.

We grabbed bison burgers for dinner, which the kids enjoyed trying. After cleaning up dinner, we headed back into Yellowstone. Ben drove so I could get pictures out the window! Yay for awesome husbands! 🙂

We went to Old Faithful and it was the most congested with cars we had seen so far. There had also been a wreck and construction, which slowed down the drive to a snail’s pace at times. We rushed through the parking lot to get to the geyser and saw a few small spurts and a lot of steam. We waited maybe 10 minutes or so, until the big eruption. It was great! The wind was blowing towards us, so we did get a few misty drops on us.

Ben’s photo of the boys and I. He caught me taking video and photos. 🙂

Next stop was the Grand Prismatic Spring. This was what I had been looking forward to. It was amazing. The colors are just amazing to think that nature can produce such vibrant colors. We parked at Fairy Falls Trail and took the trail over to Prismatic Spring. There is a fork in the trail: straight goes to Fairy Falls Trail, left goes up a hill to Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook. Take the extra 1/4 mile and go up the hill. It gives you a greater vantage point to look down on the colorful spring. There were a lot less people up there too!

We stopped at a waterfall and a few more hot springs on the way back.

Video: Geysers and Hot Springs we’ve seen soon so far. Old Faithful is in it too!

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