Yellowstone - part 1

June 21-22, 2001

We made it to Yellowstone National Park!










Coming into Yelllowstone from the south, we saw that it had a lot of snow. This snowbank along the road is almost as tall as Zack.







The boys' tent set up in our campsite; it was right next to a snowbank. The nights were cold (about 35 degrees), but the boys said that they slept warm.








After setting up camp, we headed for Old Faithful; the route required us to cross the continental divide; this time it was at an elevation of 8391 feet.  








The crowd at Old Faithful waiting for it to erupt.









The crowd was not disappointed. Old Faithful erupted within a couple of minutes of the time predicted by the Park Service; the error estimate on their prediction was plus or minus ten minutes, so that was pretty good.







After watching Old Faithful, we wandered through some of the other thermal features in the area. This is one of the hot springs, but I forgot its name. It seemed to the boys that a lot of the geysers were named, "Stay on walk", which was the most common sign in the area.






This thermal pool had wild flowers growing right next to it, which was unusual. The acidity of the water, and the fumes emitted tend to kill plants nearby.








The Grotto seemed to be belching forth steam and hot water almost continously.







The beauty of Morning Glory Pool has faded from people throwing things into the pool. This has resulted in lower water temperature and a change in color from bright blue and green to a dull green and orange. What a shame!








The Grand Prismatic Pool in the Midway Geyser Basin is just as colorful as ever.

The boys decided, however, that, except for Old Faithful, they didn't like the thermal features; the rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulfide bothered them.