July 1 - Grand Prismatic Spring and Old Faithful

We were up early again - motivated to get going to avoid the crowds. We drove straight to the Old Faithful area, in hopes of getting a little charging time on a medium speed charger. There were only a few medium chargers in YNP, and no fast chargers. We wanted to get a little extra range due to the long distances we would have to travel to get to everything we wanted to see. Unfortunately, the 2 plugs were busy, so we decided to do our visit to Old Faithful later. We backtracked to Middle Geyer Basin to see Grand Prismatic Spring. It was still early and the air was cool, making the steam coming off of Grand Prismatic really dense. Unfortunately, this prevented to good look I was hoping to get, since Grand Prismatic was probably my most anticipated sight to see in YNP. However, we were fortunate that there were 2 rangers on the boardwalk in front of the spring doing some clean up that were able to talk to us about the spring and the recent death of the bison that wandered into the spring. Part of what they were cleaning up was some of the hair that was coming off of the carcass as it decays in the spring. We couldn't get a good look at where the poor bison met his demise, but we could see the shape of where he was lying.

View of the Middle Geyser Basin as approaching from the north.

That big area of steam is where the Grand Prismatic Spring is - I was disappointed to not be able to get to see it in person.

Next, we headed to the Lower Geyser Basin to view that area before the crowds descended. There were a number of interesting features there, including the runoff of hot spring water into the Firehole River.

Then we back to the Upper Geyser Basin and Old Faithful. When we got to the ev charger, we realized that one of the cars was completely charged and there was a guy boondocking there (sleeping in his car). Leon woke him up, he moved on and we were able to get plugged in. Then headed to Old Faithful and the rest of that area, which was so much more than just Old Faithful. Since we had about 50 minutes until the next eruption of Old Faithful, we toured much of the area around OF. We even saw Lion Geyer erupt, creating a beautiful rainbow!

Rainbow created by the geyser

The Upper Geyser Basin is very large, with many, many geothermal features. The colors were incredible - these pictures pale in comparison to how they appeared to the eye.

We made our way around to the benches to watch the eruption of Old Faithful about 15 minutes before it went off, snagging the last 2 seats available. There were at least 1,000 people there to watch the eruption. We watched the eruption, but our view of the water shooting up was obscured by a lot of steam due to the wind. That made for a less-than-impressive impression. We quickly made it inside to the nearby lodge to grab a snack - Leon got a Yellowstone Root Beer, which he said was quite good.

The legendary Yellowstone Inn was nearby, so we decided to go inside to see it. It was really something, the lobby and the original building completely constructed of lodgepole pines, with a vaulted lobby standing 3 stories high.

Catching a little respite on the second floor of the Yellowstone Inn. Though the days started cool (around 48 degrees), it warms really quickly. We had been out walking all morning and enjoyed the shade the relative cool of the Inn.

We decided to take in the views from the second story outdoor balcony for a while, since it had views of the basin, plus there was good people watching to be had. From this vantage point, we saw the Beehive Geyser erupt unexpectedly, and it was a real show! We hung in the shade for the second eruption of OF; it was more impressive the second time. We found ourselves surrounded by a bunch of folks from NC (3 different parties, all sitting in the same area with us) - kind of crazy.

Beehive Geyser giving us a show!

Old Faithful from a much better angle!

Next, we got back in the car and headed east to Yellowstone Lake to find a spot on the shore to have a picnic lunch. Even after eating, I was still feeling tired, so we took it easy by driving around the park, ending up at an area that had to shower. Unfortunately, we arrived at 1:30, which is exactly when they close the showers for an hour and a half to clean them. This made me grumpy. Fortunately things quickly turned around when we went to charge and rest nearby,  and we encountered the neighborhood bison, Carl. We pulled up to the charger, and saw this enormous bison less than 30 feet from us. There were employees around making sure that no one approached Carl as he grazed in front of the building. We learned that he hung around the area of the Canyon Lodge, seeming to like it there as long as no one approached him. Leon made a quick exit from our car to plug us in as we kept a watchful eye on Carl. He eventually started grazing the grass right at the charger! He sort of moseyed around the grounds, eating only the best grass and eventually we lost sight of him.

We decided to look around for the cafeteria that was supposed to be in this developed area of the park. We went walking around, and low and behold, there was Carl, sitting up in a small stand of trees. We didn't bother him and he didn't bother us, though I was very nervous walking around him.

Then eventually found the cafeteria and had a tasty dinner (surprising for park food). Then headed out to tour the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. This is where the Yellowstone name comes from. It was simply gorgeous! We had a lovely time visiting all of the viewing points for both the upper and lower falls; crowds were very low b/c it was about 6 pm - 8pm. The moody clouds of nearby storms made the yellow pop even more - we even spotted a rainbow arching over the canyon.

Lower Yellowstone Falls

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Rainbow!

The other end of the rainbow!

Lower Falls

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We spotted a herd of elk cows on our way back to camp. 

It rained on the way back to the campground, and we had to wait briefly in the car for it to clear. We got ready for bed and turned in before it was dark.