My Turn too Continued....

Okay, so we got to Yellowstone a little later than expected but we weren't on a time line. Getting in is easy because I show my driver's license and Lifetime card. Our goal today was to see Old Faithful in the daytime, see the springs, pools, and geysers in that area, and then travel around to and through West Thumb, around the lake, and to the Canyon area.

We drove into the Lodge parking lot instead of the regular lot. Got a close spot but had to walk further to the visitors center. Lesson learned. Because my knee was acting up I decided it didn't matter the cost, I would get a wheel chair. Turns out I only had to loan them my credit card and they would loan me their wheel chair. What a blessing. This way I wouldn''t drag us down and rest my knee at the same time.

Backing up, by time we got parked we had just missed a gush of Old Faithful. It is one of the most regulated geysers but not the biggest. After we got the wheel chair and did our potty break we were on the boardwalk. They have boardwalks all around this area so it is easy for us wheel chair'ers as well as it keeps people on the right path. It's supposed to anyway.

I can picture our walk in my mind now even though it was 2 days ago. We not only saw spectacular visions but we also had a blast as a family. We decided not to wait an hour for the next Old Faithful gush. As we walked along the boardwalk, we could still see where Old Faithful was. I am sure most of you could do the boardwalk to see all the beauty quicker than us but we were so awestruck we took longer than most. As we rounded an area we heard the gush and turned around. We weren't close up but we could still see and hear Old Faithful. We thought we'd get back in time to see the next one, 65 - 90 minutes later, but we missed that one too. But nothing will be as spectacular than the first time we saw it the night before!

The springs had all different colors and we learned what they all meant. There were little geysers and big geysers. We walked further down the boardwalk and found the Grand Geyser. It sits next to 2 others, the Vent and the Turan. The Turan goes off every 15-20 mins or so. We waited but must have just missed that one too. I was starting to feel that we'd miss the boat on all of them. But we walked further down and arrived in time to see Riverside Geyser. Imagine seeing one of those fireworks that is in the round canister shooting up the continuous gold stream of color. Well, this was water continually spewing up in he air for at least 10 minutes. And it was shooting out from a rock formation. Spectacular. God gave us true enjoyment. We walked further seeing other smaller, very smaller, gurgling geysers until we came to the end of the pathway.

At the end of the boardwalk is a spring called Morning Glory Pool. The pictures are so colorful. But it's sad to say, my friend Mary would be disappointed to know it is now called Fading Glory Pool. Seems people have tossed stuff in there in the past. These items change the color because of the reaction with the actual minerals in the water. Don't get me wrong, the colors were off but the pool itself is amazing. It is not round inside. You have to view it from different angles to get the full vision of this beauty. The water is still clear because it is hot. The hotter the water, the clearer it is. So not only is there color because of the minerals or algae it contains but the color of the water is produced because of the level of how hot or cool the water is.

By time we finished the rounds at Old Faithful, we were done for the day. The clouds were still above and it was now getting dark, which tells you we had a looonnngggg day. With the traffic in the morning, stopping at all of the sites along the way, and the time we spent at Old Faithful we were tired! Back to the motel we went. Well, we stopped off at KFC first and then to the room. After that we hit the indoor pool and hot tub.

It's Thursday morning. I was too tired last night to blog what I just wrote. I will catch up with yesterday's either later today. I didn't realize it was late. Everyone has been sleeping and Steve just knocked on the door. It is now 9:40 am and we need to get on the road to leave the area. It's snowing!! God is so good he waited for us to be leaving for it snow. Yesterday was very interesting, weather wise. Other than snow, we experienced it all. But that will be in the next blog. For now we need to go. Everyone in my room is now up and scrambling. We'll have to do breakfast on the road after check out.
C