Yellowstone National Park - Day 2

Our plan for the day was to hike in the Old Faithful area.  We stopped at the lodge front desk and asked for trail suggestions.  We decided to hike the Fairy Falls trail after first visiting Midway Geyser Basin.  As we were driving down the road, we saw a group of bison lying down just off the roadway.  We stopped and took a couple of pictures.  It is hard to believe these very large animals simply roam free absolutely any where they want.  We have seen them walking down the middle of the road and in the lodge parking lot in addition to the meadows and woods.

Here is our tour book description of Midway Geyser Basin.

The Midway Geyser Basin extends for about a mile along the Firehole River.  The major attractions here are the Excelsior Geyser, the third largest geyser in the world and once the park’s most powerful geyser, and the well known Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in Yellowstone and the second largest in the world.The colors of the springs surrounding area were like a beautiful rainbow on land.

We next hiked the Fairy Falls trail which took us about 2 ½ hours.  There is a section of the trail that passes to the West of the Midway Geyser Basin.  Just off the trail was a high slope that we climbed in order to get a high view of the Grand Prismatic Spring.  The climb was difficult over fallen trees and loose terrain.  It was worth it for this upper view of the geyser area.  We met a couple from China who had the same idea as us.  The wife asked if she could have her picture taken with Ellen.  Her husband took the picture and then got into another picture with Ellen and me.  It was very cute.  I gave them our email address and asked that they send a copy of the picture to us. 

The Fairy Falls trail was easy, but muddy in spots.  Some of the trail was very narrow and passed through a new growth area of pine trees.  We were a bit concerned about bears in this area.  We tried to make noise and shouted out loud on a regular basis.  The falls were beautiful and the long hike was worth the effort. 

We finished the day by visiting other sites in the area.  Specific locations of sites visited can be found in Frommer’s National Park of the American West, pages 413-418. 

We returned to the lodge which is located less than 100 years from Old Faithful.  It erupts approximately every 90 minutes and was right on schedule.  The eruption lasted less than five minutes.

We got back to our room and spent a relaxing afternoon in the lodge.  Ellen took a tour of the lodge, which included how it was built and  almost destroyed by both fire and an earthquake.

This has been a wonderful visit.  The geysers reminded us of many coffee pots perking at once.  The problem is that the geysers smell like sulfuric acid instead of Starbucks.  It reinforces the fact that we have been on top of a live volcano.  Since this place could blow at any minute, we leave for the Grand Tetons in the morning. 

Pictures can be found at  https://picasaweb.google.com/tschick62/201169YellowstoneDay2?authkey=Gv1sRgCKeTnfHGtKuf5AE&feat=directlink

More later . . .