National Parks Road Trip 6: The Main Event

We rolled out of our cozy gulch at sunup yesterday and headed back to the park. The day was wet and cold, in the single digits (sorry Americans), and we went into low-hanging clouds on the way over Sylvan Pass (elevation 8530 ft / 2600 m). We drove halfway around Yellowstone Lake, and B put Across the Great Divide on the car stereo as we crossed the continental divide.

We were aiming for a very specific destination, but we decided to stop at Kepler Cascades along the way, which were right beside the road but very beautiful and worth the chill. After days of hot, dry weather, usually reaching 30 C in the afternoon sun, it was a bit strange to put on toques, mitts, and all of our extra layers.

We parked at Old Faithful and just missed an eruption, so we wandered around Upper Geyser Basin, being treated to even more steaming thermal features. One of them erupted right in front of us - the water flew about five or ten feet up and splattered across the boardwalk, but we miraculously survived. We dodged another bison and explored the stunning historic lodges, and got back to the main event just in time for the 10:28 eruption. It seems easy to dismiss Old Faithful as a tourist cliche, and some of the crowds nearby were even joking about it, but it was actually quite impressive and fun to see.

We walked the boardwalk loop to see Grand Prismatic Spring further up the road, which was extremely steamy but gorgeous, with bright teals and rusty terraces. Walking among these things feels like being explorers on an alien planet (and the info plaques say that NASA studies these hot springs to get an idea about potential life on other planets).

We took in another waterfall, ate sandwiches, and spotted a roadside osprey on Firehole Lake Drive, and toured more brilliantly-coloured thermal features at Artist Paintpots, which also featured the most unreal muddy bubbling stew we'd seen yet, spitting bits of wet clay directly at us.

There was snow coming down on the road heading east, but the sky opened up a bit over Hayden Valley, where B took some photos of a distant herd of bison. We also got hot chocolates and did a nice little walk around the Pelican Creek Trail, which brought us down to the edge of Yellowstone Lake (but which featured a distinct lack of pelicans).