Chapter 18: Fire In The Hole!
June 27, 2015. It was our 17th anniversary, and Julie and I were going to celebrate by walking around the smelly steam vents on top of a supervolcano. Livin’ the dream.
For some reason, most likely diaper-related, I needed to run out and get something from the van that morning. When I went outside, I was struck by the way the early morning sunlight was hitting the lodge and the geyser basin. So I ran back inside to grab the camera. By the time I got back to a good viewing area, the sun had risen a bit and the colors weren’t quite as nice, but it was a pretty morning anyway. Here’s the lodge, with Old Faithful in the background:
Upper Geyser Basin:
And, as it just so happened, Old Faithful began to erupt while I was standing out there.
I’d say the morning was off to a good start.
When planning the trip, I had originally made a reservation for dinner at the
Old Faithful Inn Dining Room, figuring it was our best shot at a classy anniversary dinner. But while the location and atmosphere are top-notch, I was warned away by both friends and online reviews stating that the food was disappointing. Our experience at the cafeteria the previous night seemed to confirm what others had stated. In addition, we looked at the menu and were not inspired by the offerings. I would have ordered the steak, because I have no idea what a "cioppino" or an "osso buco" is. Although I suspect those are ways to get whacked if you run afoul of the Mafia. "Hey, Guido, go give that guy a cioppino, eh?"
It’s one thing to have bad food, but paying a premium for bad froo-froo food I can’t pronounce is even worse. Listening to the word-of-mouth reviews led me to cancel my dinner reservation and splurge on the chuckwagon experience in the Tetons instead.
Still, I wanted to do something to celebrate. So we decided to try and have breakfast in the dining room instead, figuring it would be harder to screw up basic breakfast food than fancy-pants froo-froo food. We didn’t need a reservation—breakfast was first-come, first serve. We were seated right away.
This turned out to be a good call. It was nice to have a sit-down, full breakfast with something other than stale muffins and non-ripe bananas. It was also nice to have a relaxed morning where we weren’t immediately rushing out the door and driving a couple of hours. I had a big heaping plate of french toast that, while not being the greatest I’ve ever had, certainly passed muster. Julie splurged on the huckleberry pancakes and came away suitably impressed. So breakfast in the Old Faithful Inn Dining Room gets a thumbs-up from us.
Now, remember when I said our plan was for today to be the “easy” day, just exploring the Upper Geyser Basin? Well, I fibbed a bit. We did have one drive to make. But it was a short one. We went over to the Midway Geyser Basin, a few miles away, in order to check out another of the more famous features of Yellowstone—the Grand Prismatic Spring. The goal here was to beat the crowds and then head back to the Inn to take advantage of parking there and spend the rest of the day exploring the Old Faithful area.
Rope Drop worked once again, and the parking area was nowhere near capacity at Midway. We got on the boardwalk and walked over the Firehole River.
You can probably guess where that name came from. The Firehole River is one of the major water features in the park. Many of the geothermal features feed it as they erupt, and it drains the Upper, Midway, and Lower Geyser Basins. The water temperatures run hotter than most other rivers, so don’t try and swim (although I believe there is an area where swimming is allowed much further downstream).
The boardwalk trail at Midway is fairly short. There are a few geysers/hot springs here and there, but the main event is the Grand Prismatic Spring, a massive hot spring featuring a kaleidoscope of color thanks to the various bacteria that reside within.
But there’s one slight problem. From the boardwalk, your viewing angle is low to the ground. And if the wind isn’t right, steam will mostly prevent you from seeing all of that color.
Thankfully, there is a way around this issue. See that hill behind the spring? That’s accessible via the Fairy Falls trail, which begins from a parking area just a short distance down the road from the Midway parking lot. All you have to do from there is hike a little over a mile and, if you happen to have a baby with you, carry him on your back in that blasted torture device/backpack.
I could do this one more time, right?
We drove to the Fairy Falls trailhead and started the hike. For the most part, it’s a very easy hike to get to the hill—very flat. And not Utah flat, either. Closer to Delaware flat.
Until, that is, we reached the hill. Then there was nothing but up. There were a few signs posted when we first reached the hill that said not to climb there because it was a “recharge area” or something like that. So we kept walking until we didn’t see signs anymore. Then we climbed.
Here’s the view:
Now that’s more like it. I imagine the colors are actually better in the afternoon, when the sun is behind you. But at that time of day it would be very hard to find available parking at the trailhead. It would be interesting to see if it’s better, though.
Since we did all that work to get here, we had to take more than one photo.
We sat and enjoyed the view for a while and then walked back the way we came in. By mid-morning, we were back at the Old Faithful Inn and getting ready for our leisurely day walking around the Upper Geyser Basin.
We stopped at the Visitor Center, where sucker—excuse me,
tourists can pay $3 more for a Young Scientist booklet. It’s similar in every way to the Junior Ranger program except your kids are completing activities that have more to do with the science of the geothermal features at Yellowstone. They get a patch when they’ve completed all of their work. The best part of the program is that the kids are given a kit that includes an infrared thermometer to measure the temperatures of the hot springs, etc. You only have to sign a waiver that promises you’ll buy the government a new aircraft carrier if you break the kit or lose it.
Generally speaking, we measured temperatures around 140 degrees Fahrenheit in the center of those hot springs.
As we started walking, we saw Lion Geyser erupting in the distance. We weren’t fast enough to get a photo, but that was the first geyser we’d seen erupt other than Old Faithful. We were hoping it wouldn’t be the last.
There are several geysers in Yellowstone that erupt on fairly regular schedules, just none as consistently predictable as Old Faithful. With Old Faithful, the Park Service will post a predicted eruption time +/- 10 minutes, and they’re generally pretty close. Old Faithful generally erupts every 90 minutes or so. There are a few other geysers that are regular enough for the NPS to offer predicted eruption times: Castle Geyser, Riverside Geyser, Daisy Geyser and Grand Geyser are the other four in the Upper Geyser Basin that are predictable. These geysers only erupt a few times a day and the predictions sometimes give a range of +/- 30 minutes or +/- 1 hour, so it’s hardly an exact science. It makes it a little tricky to plan the day, too.
We tried to cover as much ground as we could, using the eruption predictions as a guide for how to walk around the geyser basin. In the meantime, the kids could work on their Young Scientists books and we’d try to keep Baby Drew from going stir-crazy in the stroller.
Oh, look: Old Faithful is going off again.
It was about here when I realized that my plan for an “easy”, “relaxing”, “leisurely” walk around the geyser basin was a little far-fetched. The next eruption was going to be Riverside Geyser. This was at the far end of the basin—a little over 2 miles away. I hadn’t realized it, but the entire loop around the geyser basin is 4.6 miles of walking.
Well, I didn’t have the backpack on. So I had that going for me, which was nice.
We took our time, stopping at various features here and there. Eventually we made our way towards Riverside Geyser near the end of the trail. Just around the bend, we could hear the sound of rushing water—the eruption had already started. We started running, hoping to catch a glimpse of the geyser.
It turns out we didn’t need to rush. Riverside Geyser’s eruptions generally last about 20 minutes, so it ends up being a great show.
Unfortunately, Castle Geyser was also predicted to erupt at roughly the same time, and although we are veteran parents, we haven’t figured out how to be in two places at once. So we missed that one. But if you’re keeping score, we had now seen 3 different geyser eruptions.
At the very end of the trail was the Morning Glory Pool, which has long been known for its spectacular color. Sadly, over time the color has begun to fade—and this is due to people throwing coins, trash, and other crap into the pool over the years.
Check out the photos at the bottom of this page to see how it’s changed over the years.
This is not the only location where people have affected Yellowstone for the worst. Some geysers will never erupt again due to people plugging them with rocks and other trash.
Still, I think it’s worth seeing. There’s still some nice color in the pool and it’s another one of those locations where you can feel like you’re staring into the depths of the earth.
It was on the walk back towards Old Faithful and the lodge that the kids started giving me crap. “I thought this was supposed to be an easy day,” etc., etc. Hey, do you want to see geysers or not?
This is Grotto Geyser, although I think Giant Ogre Geyser would be a more appropriate name.
Our next stop was Grand Geyser, since it was the next predicted eruption. And we’ll save that for the next chapter. But in the meantime, I’ll leave you with a warning not to stand on geysers, or any other geothermal features in Yellowstone. Seriously, don’t do it. If you do, your feet and legs will be swallowed by the earth while some lady will uselessly react in horror and other jerks will just completely ignore you altogether. Also, you might lose your hat.
Coming Up Next: More of our relaxing 7-mile hike around the geyser basin, and our romantic anniversary dinner celebration!
I've seen that sign for years! And never once thought of that!
I really liked that.
Stunning.
Still, a cute way to get the point across.
