Idaho Part 2

Saturday morning, bright and early (okay 7:30am), we left for Yellowstone. Neither Mark or myself have been to Yellowstone so we were excited to see some...nature. We arrived around 9AM, early enough that there was no line for the car entrance. According to our friends, that was a very positive indication of how the crowds would be.

 I really don't remember where we were exactly when I took the pictures, but here are the sites we visited in our day: 

1. Norris
2. Old Faithful
3. Inspiration Point 
4. Upper Falls
5. Lower Falls
6. Steamboat Geyser 

It definitely was smelly. It was raining off and on that day so at some points we couldn't tell if it was misting rain or sulfer water. Either way, we tried not to inhale while walking as long as possible through the mist.

 This was on one of the boardwalks looking out. Talk about looking like the land of desolation!

This geyser we stopped at to get a picture in front of us stopped erupting as soon as we posed for the picture. Go figure....

 The crowd of people waiting for old faithful. It erupts every 45 minutes to an hour. We were lucky enough to get there just 10 minutes before it went off. It looks like it erupts pretty high, but there is actually another geyser in the park that goes twice as high when it erupts...but that only happens once every few years.

At upper falls, we took a 3/4 mile hike of switchbacks down to get to the waterfall. The views were breathtaking. Looking down did the same when you realized that the waterfall drops down at least 200 yards. The water has some pretty rough rapids as well. 

There were a lot of people at this spot taking pictures. Obviously since it is prime location. But the entertaining part was that a lot of people were carrying around Ipads in the park. Now I'm all for technology and having high quality. But isn't a camera that you can hook onto your wrist or neck more convenient than an Ipad? It made us laugh a bit. 

I forgot to mention the other two wives in the group are girls I went to Romania with 3 years ago. We may or may not have stayed up until 2 AM that night talking about our memories from that crazy summer. 

We made our boys take a picture together. On the left is Ian, the right is Stephen, Alyssa's husband. We picked them up in Rexburg and they followed us up to the cabin. They don't look as thrilled for a picture but they stood there looking manly together. 

 Whatever you do...don't look down!! Too late.....This was Inspiration Point. I'm not sure what inspiration could come from looking down into this but as you can see from the next picture, it definitely had some breathtaking views. 

 Just to our right, there was a telescope provided by the local ranger station focused on an Ospreen bird's nest. The telescope focused in so closely you felt like you were in the nest with the bird. It was a pretty cool experience!

Afterwards we visited a few more geysers including steamboat which hasn't erupted in several months. Apparently when it erupts, nearby campers can hear it. The ranger said if the wind is just right when it erupts, the mist can land on cars in the parkinglot nearby. Because some of the erupted material is what glass is made out of, it can ruin your windshield and you'd have to replace it. We were glad there was no eruption that day because there was definitely plenty of wind. 

 It's pretty windy in the park (at least that day). Many lost hats can be seen in the springs and geyser areas. They tell you not to walk off of the boardwalk because you could sink in. We joked every time we saw a hat that the person must have sunken into the earth and the hat was all that they left behind.

 For a park called "Yellowstone" this was about all the yellow stone we saw...and from what others said, this is actually bacteria that grows from the constant but low stream of icky water that runs through.

 These two little hot pots were sitting right next to each other. The one on the left was bubbling like crazy. The one on the right was trying hard but just didn't have enough power to create much gas. We gave it an A for effort at least.

 It wasn't until we were out of the park that we actually took pictures with the Yellowstone sign. It had been a long day of rain and wind, but fortunately at this point, I think it's safe to say we all still looked decent. I didn't have my camera at the time but while we were driving between spots, we passed a bison who was cruising down the side of the road. We pulled over and Alyssa got a picture as he walked past. Seriously he was so close I could have reached out and touched him. But since he could easily crush our car with little effort, I decided to sit back and watch as he slowly meandered past the car looking less than enthused about life.

Although we only spent a day there, I think in our 8 hours spent there we saw quite a bit and probably most of what Yellowstone has to offer. An oddity of Yellowstone is that it is totally acceptable to slow traffic down if you see something off in the distance. Often, we couldn't tell what the crowds of people were looking at. We joked it would be funny to get out at an empty area and start pointing excitedly off in the distance. Then when a few people had parked, leave and let them wonder what "awesome sight" we had spotted. Next time maybe....