{"id":645,"date":"2009-07-18T00:55:34","date_gmt":"2009-07-18T04:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/?p=645"},"modified":"2009-07-18T00:55:34","modified_gmt":"2009-07-18T04:55:34","slug":"waiting-for-old-faithful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/2009\/07\/18\/waiting-for-old-faithful\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting for Old Faithful"},"content":{"rendered":"

With our exhilarating morning hike behind us, we were all hungry, thirsty and pooped!\u00a0 There was enough time remaining in the day to continue our sightseeing but unfortunately there was little energy between us to continue walking.\u00a0 Dennis was a bit preoccupied with making sure we had enough propane to keep the refrigerator cold since he just stocked the fridge with cold beer.\u00a0\u00a0 Taking all this into consideration, we decided we would drive to Fishing Bridge Village<\/a> for propane and then, if time allowed,\u00a0over to Old Faithful <\/a>to see one of the world\u2019s most famous guisers.<\/p>\n

\"Yellowstone

Yellowstone Lake<\/p><\/div>\n

Yellowstone is comprised of 2.2 million acres so going from village to village is a feat in itself.\u00a0\u00a0 It was more than 45 miles to go from Canyon Village to Fishing Bridge, separated mainly by Yellowstone Lake.\u00a0 Our first glimpse of the lake was so inviting, blue and icy waters.\u00a0 I\u2019m telling you that Lake should have been classified an ocean!\u00a0 It went on forever.\u00a0 I kept expecting to see a lighthouse in the distance it was so huge.\u00a0 The kids were excited about fishing in the lake, especially since we were visiting Fishing Bridge.\u00a0 Yeah, you guessed it \u2013 no fishing at Fishing Bridge<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 The kids complained about the misleading name for the next 20 miles until we got to the gift shop and I bought them Huckleberry taffy\u2026yuck.\u00a0 With propane tank filled to the brim, Dennis could relax again.\u00a0 With sugar quota met, the boys could relax as well.\u00a0 Me, well, I like being amused.\u00a0 Since Dennis was open for the ride, we decided to make one more stop at Old Faithful and save us the trip in the morning.<\/p>\n

\"old

The Old Faithful faithful<\/p><\/div>\n

We continued south through Yellowstone to the most visited and populated area.\u00a0 I told Dennis it was about 30 minutes away but it was actually\u00a045 because I never seem to calculate properly.\u00a0 As we pulled into the closest parking lot, I thought I was looking\u00a0at Gillette Stadium.\u00a0 The parking lot was about the size of a lot you would see at the stadium, with the same number of people.\u00a0 There were lodges, restaurants, and gift shops of course.\u00a0 Uncharacteristically of the park, there were no clear signs directing you to the guiser so like everyone else, we followed the crowd then instantly you knew you were at the right place.\u00a0 Three rows of benches surrounded a rather small hill about 50 yards away.\u00a0 Not sure what to do, we sat.\u00a0 And sat.\u00a0 And sat.\u00a0\u00a0 A couple times I tried to find a \u201cnext show\u201d clock to know how much longer we needed to wait for this world famous spectacle.\u00a0 I couldn’t find anything so we waited and waited.\u00a0 The seats started filling in and it wasn\u2019t long until it was standing room only and we had front row seats.\u00a0 The anticipation was growing.\u00a0 Originally, none of us were jazzed about seeing this but we knew we\u2019d regret it if we didn\u2019t but for the first time we were actually getting excited about seeing the trusty water show.<\/p>\n

\"old

Old Faithful erupts<\/p><\/div>\n

Then it happened.\u00a0 First a little spit and steam came out of the ground.\u00a0 Then another spurt, this time about 20 feet higher.\u00a0 Finally, the ranger must have turned on the water full blast and water jumped 100 feet into the sky.\u00a0 It danced there for a minute and then fell back down and disappeared.\u00a0\u00a0 Those next couple moments were very confusing.\u00a0 We looked at each other and those around us.\u00a0 Was there more? Should we applaud?\u00a0 People began walking to the gift shops and parking lots.\u00a0 \u201cI suppose we\u2019re through here\u201d I said sarcastically.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I expected the earth to open up or hear angles sing but I couldn\u2019t believe we just drove over an hour for a minute of squirting water.\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, maybe two minutes but the wonder of it all was lost on me and my family.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m glad I can say I saw it but I learned the hard way the reason Old Faithful<\/a> is famous has everything to do with her being predictable and not because she entertains for hours.<\/p>\n

Back in the RV, we decided to eat dinner in the parking lot since it was a good 90 minute ride back to the campsite.\u00a0 We finished the loop around the west side of the park to get another perspective of the landscape.\u00a0 The west side of the park was very mountainous, offering more incredible views and the promise of critters.\u00a0 It was easy to tell if wildlife was in view.\u00a0 Cars would slow down to get a good view.\u00a0 We were forced to stop in the middle of the road at one point when we saw a buffalo strolling down the side of the road without a care in the world.\u00a0 It was walking toward us and right in front of our RV it stopped.\u00a0 This wonderfully huge and ugly creature was literally 4 feet away.\u00a0 He looked directly at us scrambling to grab our cameras to immortalize this moment and then crossed the street as if to say he had the right of way.\u00a0 I never got the shot.<\/p>\n

\"baby

Bear sighting in Yellowstone<\/p><\/div>\n

In the morning, we packed up early and headed out for another long day of driving.\u00a0 My only minor disappointment with Yellowstone was that I never got to see a bear, from a far of course.\u00a0 I wanted to load my pictures on the computer so Cam rode shotgun.\u00a0 All we needed was to make ONE turn and we\u2019d be on the correct road for the west exit.\u00a0 Cameron pointed the way for Dennis and off we went\u2026in the wrong direction.\u00a0 Betty kept telling us to \u201cmake a legal U turn\u201d but we thought the mountain air confused her so we just ignored her warnings.\u00a0\u00a0 From behind the laptop, I would question if this looked familiar.\u00a0 Dennis would shrug his shoulders\u00a0and tell me it\u00a0all looked the same to him after hours and hours of being behind the wheel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After \u00bd hour, I decided to take a serious look at the map and realized we were heading north, not west.\u00a0\u00a0 Not happy about an extra 60 minutes to exit the park, we were trying to make the best of seeing new views and then, the sight that made it all worthwhile\u2026a baby grizzly bear about 10 feet off the side of the road. \u00a0\u00a0After two more bear sightings, another pass through Mammoth Hot Springs and through a Bald Eagle sanctuary with 2 residents perched high in the tree, we made it down to the west exit and off to our next stop just outside Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With our exhilarating morning hike behind us, we were all hungry, thirsty and pooped!\u00a0 There was enough time remaining in the day to continue our sightseeing but unfortunately there was little energy between us to continue walking.\u00a0 Dennis was a bit preoccupied with making sure we had enough propane to keep the refrigerator cold since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63,27,5,35,101],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}