The night was cold. The temperature of the sun could be felt indicating a hot day ahead. Soup and hot tea (iced tea heated in our pans) along with bagels to start the day with full bellies. We drove in the direction of Old Faithful not knowing what the path would bring us along the way. Driving along, we came to our first pull out. It was labeled the “Midway Geyser Basin”. We parked beside an RV, and made our way up the wood planked walkway where we first reached the Excelsior geyser crater. From there, we could see bright colors of steam reflecting 100+ meters away like a rainbow of smoke against the blue sky. Jenina quickly knew this would be the Grand Prismatic geyser she had researched and obsessed about before leaving Home. Sure enough, the beauty of the geyser was breath taking. (edit: this made 1 of 2 of the best we seen in YNP in the entire trip as agreed by both of us). Bright reds, oranges, yellows, and blues filled the entire area as if someone painted the ground. The sun would reflect off the colorful ground causing colored rays of light to hit the Sulfuric steam, producing the eye catching steam rainbow we spoke of earlier. After spending a good amount of time, it was time to return to the car. Getting to our car, we found a stupid piece of paper stating that we owe $85 to the park for parking in an RV zone. The lack of professionalism made us doubt that it was real. A quote from the bottom read that the park has medical staff to help us get our heads out of our asses. Even then, it was hard to tell if it was real, as it had our license plate, and we did park illegally. It said to pay at the gate upon exit. (edit: I drove out the gate. Got stopped to check our entry pass, and let go. Didn’t pay a dime!) Another short drive until we reached the “Biscuit Basin”. This is where we saw the beautiful Shell spring, and Jewel geyser. The Jewel geyser is not very well marked with detail, but it was easy enough to figure out that it went off every 15 minutes. (the time it took to walk around the boardwalk). It would last for about 1 minute. Enough time to get some nice pictures. On our way to go watch the most famous of all, the Old faithful. We arrived early, and got good seats up front. Bench seats line the edge of the geyser, the closest your allowed to get. It was an hour’s wait, but seats were already filling fast. You could hear family’s and people talking about what they expected to see. The heights, length of time, and signs of it starting. The hour passed by slowly in blistering heats. Robert put on his bandanna as his skin was starting to turn purple. We tried to drink as much water as possible, but it never felt like enough. Just then, neighboring geysers started going off minutes prior to the Old Faithful prediction. As Old Faithful started to bubble and steam, small burst of water came flying out. Leading into a full eruption shooting water about 30-35 feet in the air, and steam as high as 100 feet. The initial eruption died in seconds leaving small bursts for approx 3 minutes. It wasn’t all what we thought. It was nice, but I guess we both expected powerful blasts, crazy sounds, and a longer initial blast. But the isn’t the Old Spectacular geyser, it’s Old Faithful because it’s exactly that…Faithful. Rangers can predict it’s eruption +/- 10 minutes. All others in the park vary vastly. A few of the geysers we saw haven’t erupted since 2010, while most others have a 8 hour time window in which they will explode. We were fortunate enough to see the Grotto geyser and the Daisy geyser erupt. This brought us following remote trails to other areas in the park. We came across this one pool called the “Punch Bowl” a midst our trail exploration. A rock formation much similar to an above ground hot tub. Jenina and I were so amazed by it’s uniqueness compared to all the other pools and springs we saw in the area. The tub was surrounded by more of those vibrant reds and yellows streaming out a small hole in the side of the Punch Bowl. In hopes to see more, we finished walking down the trail, where we ended up back at the highway. Thinking that there must be another trail back in, we followed the highway. 5 km’s later, same highway, no trails, we were back at the car. Exhausted. Robert tried hitchhiking, but Jenina said it was most likely the bandanna that scared potentials away, and that, and american mentality of picking up hitchhikers. We got to the Old Faithful lodge, used the facilities and ate some pizza, before leaving the Old Faithful parking lot. Its was a debate at this point. Do we head back to the campsite? Do we swim? Swimming it is! We see signs for Firehole lake. Something we thought the park ranger said to us earlier about swimming. A couple of km’s later, we were at a gorgeous lake. Robert put his finger in the water to test the temperature. Definitely too hot for swimming! Maybe 1 second is the longest you could keep your finger in there for! Pictures it was! Back on the road again, we seen a turn off for Firehole Canyon. We took the drive down, where we seen signs for swimming! As we drive along the narrow one way road 100+ feet above a long curvy river, we reached a parking lot and a wood staircase. We could see people down below swimming. By now, its about 7pm, and light is minimal. We decided against “Swimming in cold river water” for the warmer start a campfire back at the site. As we pulled back into the grounds, Robert stopped at the front desk to buy more firewood. The park ranger explained, that if we had gone swimming back at the Canyon, there are “thermal pockets” under the river that heat the water, and that it was even possible to swim over a thermal pocket and feel the warmth. Another reason to revisit I guess 🙁 Back at the site, we built a fire, and prep’d for dinner. Robert had a migraine, and ended up visiting our neighbor and getting a Tylenol. Robert had chili and Jenina had more soup. A great way to finish Day 8? S’mores. Enough said.
