Summer Vacation 2010 Part 3

Day 7:

I kept telling my family that we had a long drive ahead of us, and this was the day. I’m not talking about driving across a state. I’m talking about just driving the grand loop of Yellowstone. Because we stopped to visit the various sites along the way, this loop took us 11 hours to complete! So we began our journey about 9:30 in the morning, traveling clockwise.

First, we came to the Old Faithful, the most famous feature of the park. We were lucky that we arrived about 15 minutes before the next eruption was to occur. So we raced to find a place among the thousand or so other visitors that were there at the time. Sure enough, it went off right on time. I don’t know all the math and science that goes into predicting the time of the eruptions, but I respect the people who take care of it for the rest of us!

Next, we visited Grand Prismatic Spring, another hydrothermal feature, with water the color of deep blues and greens, as well as mixtures of orange, red, and yellow along the edges. Like the Marfa lights in Texas, this is just hard to describe. You really must see this for yourself. Or, if you like, look it up on the internet.

Our next stop, Mammoth Hot Springs, is also hard to describe. The area looks like cave formations, except on the earth’s surface, and the smell of sulpher is almost overwhelming. Very cool site, though. Following this, we went to the place that gave Yellowstone its name: the waterfalls and the canyon. This particular canyon really does have a yellow-colored stone. Imagine that? And the upper and lower falls are majestic! After visiting the falls, we went back to our room and crashed.

Along the road on this trip, we saw a grizzly bear and her two cubs, as well as a black bear. Wow! These animal sightings made the trip that much more special.