July 11, 2012

July 11, 2012

We know the routine for busy National Parks. Get there bright and early and there are always campsites available. So we rose early and passed through Yellowstone’s North gate just after 6am. As expected the entrance sign said every campground had openings. The first campground is just a mile up. But it still says full!! In the National Parks, the left hand and right hand don’t communicate! We called the reservation line a couple hours later when we found a payphone (cells don’t work here); they only had one campground with an opening (on the other side of the park). Yesterday I would have been pissed. Tonight I have a secret plan.

We made our way leisurely south through the park down the west side. It is a pure joy. The crowds haven’t woken yet and the animals are active. We see a grizzly just off the side of the road digging for roots. A deer and her baby fawn cross the road in front of us and swim the river. We also see a couple bald eagles and some elk.

The main reason we are back in Yellowstone is for the geyser basins. This area has over half of all the world’s geothermal phenomena. The west side alone has a half dozen geyser basins. On this cool morning they are really smoking; what you would imagine hell to look like. So very cool. We stopped at each basin and did the hike, usually atop a boardwalk to keep our toeseys from being boiled alive. We looked at hundreds of bubbling Mud pots, steaming fumaroles, colorful hot springs, and exploding geysers. The hot springs are Mother Nature’s paint set. The hues are vibrant mixes of orange, green and sapphire blue. The colors are due to the different bacteria types that grow in each temperature zone. The star hot spring is Grand Prismatic Spring. It is also the largest. We have to hike atop a nearby hill to get the best view of it.

Our last stop is the Old Faithful geyser basin. Most geysers are erratic and unpredictable. You have to be very patient or very lucky to see them erupt. This trip we are neither. Despite walking around the basin for several hours, we manage to see only a couple minor shows, aside from Old Faithful, which erupts every ninety minutes like clockwork. We saw it go off six times. Our last hike of the day was to an observation point high above Old Faithful.

Since we don’t have an RV campground site, our backup plan is to go to the backcountry office and get a permit to hike in and tent camp in the wild with the grizzly bears. As part of that process, we also get a sticker that lets us park the motorhome here at Old Faithful. I thought I felt a raindrop (wink-wink) so we skip the hike and stay in the RV overnight. I told Aimee to not answer the door if any body knocks while we are sleeping. That drives Aimee nuts; she can’t stand the thought of us breaking “the rules”.