Jeeping Through the Geothermal World

Firehole Falls

2019-09-04 Tuesday

We had a lovely start to our day with fresh biscuits and cream of wheat for dessert. Then we filled the rest of the morning with chores—I can never figure out WHAT takes so long with us in the morning. I walked Cassie, we collected our big list of things to take with us for a “day trip” in the Jeep (food to eat, long sleeves to add in the evening, and miscellaneous electronics such as chargers, iPad, camera, etc.) That and the usual morning get-up-and-go meant we left the campsite at about 11:30 or something like that.

Our first stop was in West Yellowstone, where we finally had bars on our phones. That allowed me to upload yesterday’s blog (I took a quick photo of Joe at the wheel of the Jeep sans roof to illustrate it), apply more sunscreen, and to make some phone calls. Then at last we headed back into the park, with the sun shining brightly and fluffy clouds in the sky.

Yesterday at Madison Junction we’d driven north, so today we drove south, into the midst of the most geothermal activity in Yellowstone. This route included several roads that do not allow RVs, and I kept saying, “THIS is why we brought the Jeep!!”  We drove along the Firehole River and saw the Firehole Falls and Firehole Cascades— it was just a beautiful road. We saw people swimming down in the river (it is allowed there in one place) and decided we would do that tomorrow, although I’m having my doubts now— I have other plans in the entire opposite direction. But anyway....

From there we continued to the Lower Geyser Basin, and walked the

trail there. That was something we’d done last year as well. After that, we were heading for lunch, but suddenly off to the side, we saw cars parked, and when we looked, there was a small herd of buffalo. The exciting part was, some of them were RUNNING to catch up to the others! Just there was a loop I hadn’t noticed on the map, so we pulled in and saw that in the center, just beyond the bison, was a geyser shaped exactly like an upside-down cone, and it was erupting! Sadly, we missed getting a better view than that, because of trees, and it didn’t erupt again (it had a 2-minute eruption, my guidebook said.) So we drove around that loop, which had some hot pools and small (quiet) geysers), and noticed the bison again as we left. Then, we pulled into a lovely picnic area (“No RVs Allowed”) and ate our picnic lunch at a table under the trees.

After lunch, we went a mile or so further, to Midway Geyser Basin, which was my “goal” for today— Midway is the site of Grand Prismatic Pool, which is one of my very favorite features in the park. The parking lot was so crowded that there were cars parked along the road in both directions at the turnoff, but we knew that it was a long path just to see the pools, so we waited in line for a space. That was a good choice, because we ended up very close to the river and beginning of the “hike” around the pools, and that part was 1/2 mile. 

This spot is just amazing to see, with the runoff from the pools above cascading rapidly (and steamily) into the river below. It would be delicious to be able to swim in that river, it must be WARM! I will try to upload some photos when I post this—I took most of my photos on my iPad today so that I could upload them more easily when we get our brief connectivity.) Anyway, I just love the sight of the blue river, the yellow/green grasses, and the bright orange thermophillic bacteria (Joe told me that!) which line the cascading, steaming water as it plunges down the slope into the river.

Then we joined the large number of people and climbed up to the top of the slope, where we looped around the one-way boardwalk to see Grand Prismatic an the other pools and geyser which are nearby (I left my guidebook in the car, so can’t remember the names of all the pools.) We were up there for at least an hour, between sitting to watch the pool, chatting with people (Joe was explaining what caused the colors along the pools), and staring in awe at Grand Prismatic. She is just lovely. I also took a couple of photos which are identical, I think, to photos I took years ago, one of which is currently framed and hanging in the RV. It is just THAT photogenic a spot, it’s hard to tear your eyes away.

We made a brief stop at another small turnout to get a photo of the river, but better than that was a single bison who decided to meander right through the parking lot as he headed for the water. There was no place to park, so we didn’t stay—I just jumped out of the Jeep and took a photo of the bison while Joe drove loops around the parking lot.

Overflow from Hot Pool cascading into River

By now it was getting a little late, and we had not packed enough cold drinks or water, I thought. So since the next stop along the route was the Upper Geyser Basin (better known as Old Faithful), we drove there and pulled in in front of the General Store. Joey stayed in the car while I went inside, bought some cold drinks and nosh, and brought it out to him. Then he fell asleep and I went back into the store and wasted a lot of time browsing for postcards and other small items. At about 6:00, we finally left, having not seen one single geyser, including Old Faithful. (This was no hardship, since we’d seen Old Faithful last year, and walked the fantastic Upper Geyser Loop in the past.) We could have done the geysers, but we were hoping to see some animals in the evening hours on our way home. Therefore, we decided to continue the long way around the lower loop of the park roads, so we could pass through Hayden Valley.

Grand Prismatic Spring

I’m still not sure we made the best decision, even in retrospect. By this time, it was getting cooler, and I put on my long sleeved shirt. A while later, Joe put on my sweatshirt (he’d insisted he didn’t need anything in the morning, so hadn’t brought his.) We stopped to switch so I could drive, and just then a large deer-like animal— we think it was a female elk—ran across the road in front of us. So that was exciting. The park is just HUGE, and we probably drove an hour just to get to Hayden Valley (we did get beautiful views of Yellowstone Lake as we headed around the southeast corner of the park.) It was getting quite dusky by the time we got to Hayden (the sun disappears at 8pm) but we did, eventually, see that telltale line of stopped cars. Sure enough, there was a herd of bison grazing right by the road, with lots of calves included. We lingered there for a bit, but then noticed that in the distance we could see rain clouds, and we did not have the Jeep’s roof panels with us. So we headed home—another hour’s drive in the dark. It was pretty cold without the roof, but we had the idea of turning on the car’s heater, and that kept us very comfortable for the rest of the drive. After seeing one herd of bison and the young female elk dashing in front of us, we got home a bit after 9:00. Dinner was soup, and I collapsed before writing the blog—Joe had to wake me up (the lights were all on) to get undressed and actually get into bed.

So now we’ve driven around the entire lower loop, some of it quite rapidly, and we have one day left. And we haven’t even enjoyed any of the rivers yet! We did notice the road to the upper falls trail is closed this year—luckily we saw it last year! So tomorrow we will go to the Yosemite Falls overlooks which were too crowded for us last year. It seems that something is always closed somewhere in this park!