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Old FaithfulOct 2, 2008
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Fire Hole River
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Joe by the Fire Hole River
Movie Clips - Playback Requirements - Problems?
(AVI - 6.41 MB)
Geyser
(AVI - 14.89 MB)
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(AVI - 14.45 MB)
Hot Springs
(AVI - 7.61 MB)
Geysers
| October 2...Madison Campground---Yellowstone National Park We went to Old Faithful again (the last time was in 1991...nothing like waiting a while :-) We plan to stop along the way to Old Faithful to see the sites. We didn't have to go far to come to the first beautiful place to stop. We took the Fire Hole Road that runs along the Fire Hole River. This a pretty drive. The river has rapids, a waterfall and a cascade. There's even a swimming area on the river. What a wonderful place. We left the side road and went back on to the main road. We were then following a much calmer Fire Hole River. We then turned onto a road through a large meadow, still following the river. Then we came to the place that gave the road it's name. There was a small boiling pool right on the side of the river, actually partly in it. We visited quite a few other sites on our drive. There was one stop after the other. So many wonderful places to see. Ok, I thought we had found the place that gave the Fire Hole River it's name, then we came to the Excelsior Geyser Crater area. The geyser is very erratic but it is pumping out 4000 gallons of boiling water per minute over the crater rim into the Fire Hole River. We went on from Excelsior Geyser Crater to the Old Faithful area. Our first stop was the grill. We were starved, it had taken us several hours to finally make it there. This area has changed so much since we were here last. The whole road system is new and there are a lot of new buildings....some very big buildings. And more are being built. When we walked up to the viewing area for Old Faitful we were surprised again. There were benches for a long, long way along a very big boardwalk, this was new to us too. We waited for about 30 minutes to the time that was scheduled for the eruption. And...sure enough...a little squirt....a few minutes later, a little spurt.......it's messing with us :-/ Then finally, a few minutes later...it BLEW. Everyone was ooohhing & aaahhing...just like fireworks :-) It lasted for a minute or so...and was well worth the wait. We went to Old Faithful Inn after watching the great geyser show. Joe really likes this place...it is neat. We walked all over the lobby. Looking up at the structure above, like a lot of other people in the building. The fireplace is gigantic. We sat in a couple of chairs in this area and just relaxed and people watched for a little while. This really is a great place. We walked through some of the building and looked into a couple of rooms that were being cleaned. Then we took the elevator up to the first balcony and looked down over the lobby area. We went to the outside balcony on the second floor and looked around the grounds and out to where Old Faithful is located. From here you can watch Old Faithful erupt. Joe wanted to take the steps up another level or so...I took the elevator back down to the lobby and looked for him to appear at the balcony. I saw him at the third floor balcony...wow, that's high up there. He came back down, they had the next steps closed off because of damage to the structures in the area from the 1959 earthquake (it was the biggest earthquake here in recorded history). I didn't find out why the steps had never been repaired. We decided to leave and head south on the main road back to Madison Campground. There were a few things we still wanted to stop & see though. We took the Fire Hole Lake Road for a drive to White Dome Geyser and the Fire Hole Lake. This is an area we didn't see when we were here the first time. We didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be a nice drive. The geyser was different looking then the others we've seen and as we started to leave it erupted, that was great...we felt so lucky to have been there at the right time. We drove the rest of the one way road to the main road and headed back to our RV. This has been another wonderful day. It's hard to have a bad day in this park :-) |
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