Yellowstone- Upper Geyser Basin

Jasper in front of Old Faithful.

These pictures are from our first day at Yellowstone National Park.  We planned our visit in the spring, when Jasper became fascinated with geysers. (It was a natural progression from interest in the volcanoes that surround us here in Portland).  At least half of the geysers on earth are at Yellowstone, and since you can drive there from Portland in about a day and a half, we decided we really needed to go there.  I knew of course that by the time of our visit, he would have learned about as much as he could about geysers months before.  And sure enough, he had definitely moved on to other obsessions.  But we knew that once he was actually there, he would be fascinated all over again.  He just kept running around yelling, "This place is really cool!"

A fumerole, making evil sounds.

They just spent $27 million on a new visitor's center at Old Faithful, and I'm pleased to report that the exterior is really nice.  Every day that we were there, we tried hard to waste as little time as possible doing things like eating and sleeping.  We had already read every book and watched every documentary we could get our hands on about Yellowstone, and while we were there, we were keenly aware that any time spent indoors was taking away from time spent doing what we came there for.  So while I'm sure we would have enjoyed seeing the new visitor's center, as well as the others, there's not a single minute of our time outdoors I would have sacrificed.  

Old Faithful.

We stayed in a cabin near Old Faithful.  As we moved around the park, it became clear that this was the perfect choice for us.  The cabin we stayed in was next to the Firehole River and a short stroll to the Upper Geyser Basin where we saw Old Faithful erupt many times.  The cabins in other parts of the park couldn't boast of being in sight of anything so spectacular.  It was a good time of year to go as well.  Our visit was timed to take place in the last week that the cabins were open, after school started and before the snow begins in Yellowstone and roads are closed.  The crowds, which can be overwhelming in the summer, had thinned considerably.  The cabins have shared bathrooms and showers, but each room has a sink.  Cooking is forbidden in the cabins, but we brought an immersion beverage heater, which enabled us to have hot cocoa, tea, and coffee, and to make many meals with a little ingenuity.  I was surprised at the vast selection of "natural" convenience food at one of our local Safeways.  From organic canned soup and ramen noodles, to Indian meals in little pouches to be heated in boiling water, there was lots to choose from.  Cooking pasta didn't work very well, but whole wheat couscous was a great success.  This saved us lots of time and money.  

At the Upper Geyser Basin, we ran into a very kind and chatty fellow who was watching the geysers full time.  When one of them would erupt, he would get out a walkie-talkie and make a quick report.  He was loaded with information about how regular each geyser is, what the indicators are for each one of an impending eruption, and what kind of show to expect.  While we were there, there were six geysers whose eruptions were being predicted, based on a variety of factors such as the time and strength of previous eruptions.  With his encouragement and knowledge, we stuck around to see several when we might have otherwise have lost patience.  There are some lovely hot springs at the Upper Geyser Basin, but the geysers are really the stars of the show.