Today’s destination is Old Faithful, the first geyser in Yellowstone to be named. It has erupted every 44 to 120 minutes since 2000. In 1872, Yellowstone became the first National Park in the United States to protect all the geothermal features found there. For many years, only the rich could go, initially taking the train to West Yellowstone where they then boarded stagecoaches which took them into the park. In 1903, the Old Faithful Inn was built and opened to guests in 1904. It still stands today and we were able to take a tour of it. It survived the 1988 wildfires that destroyed about half the park. Although a dozen cabins burned, the Inn managed to escape the fire.
Although we had a cloudy day with only the occasional peak of the sun, the rain stayed away. We arrived at Old Faithful about 15 minutes prior to a predicted eruption time. Predicted times are +/- 10 minutes and Old Faithful erupted about 10 minutes after our arrival.
We also walked around some other trails to catch views of some hot springs and geysers. One geyser was Excelsior Geyser which is dormant. It had gone dormant in 1890 and then in 1985 erupted for 47 hours. It has remained dormant since. However, the geyser continues to pump out about 4000 gallons of water per minute, creating a colourful runoff.
The different colours in the runoff are formed in different ways. The yellows are from sulphur, browns and reds from iron and greens and blacks are from algae and heat loving bacteria. One spectacularly coloured spring is Prismatic Spring. Best views are seen from the air, but since we can’t do that, our view at least gives the hints of colour.
One view we did get in our travels was of Ospreys in their nest. It was beside a pull off on a side road we were driving and was neat to see from the car.
We decided this is the end of our time in Yellowstone. Tomorrow will be a relaxing day before we head to southeast Idaho on Thursday.
Following Joyce & Paul's Travels in Retirement 