Day 5: Yellowstone 2.0

Our new strategy had us waking up at 5:30AM, getting the car packed, making coffee and breakfast - all in the dark, while Lucia slept. We put her in the car, straight from bed, still in her pajamas, in the hopes that she would sleep a little while longer, as we made the drive back to the Hayden Valley. Our plan paid off, and not long after passing Fishing Bridge on our way towards the valley, there was a herd of bison on the side of the road! We watched them safely from our car as they ate their breakfast. They are really huge up close. We drove on a little ways further and another two bison crossed the road right in front of us. On our drive that morning we also spotted some elk and trumpeter swans.

First light in Yellowstone NP

Early morning on Yellowstone Lake

Bison!

So excited to see bison that I honked the horn with my butt!

Raven in Hayden Valley

After making our way through the valley at a leisurely pace we headed west from Canyon Village toward the Norris geyser basin. What we thought would be a boardwalk stroll through the geysers similar to the West Thumb basin we did yesterday, we obviously didn't read the sign close enough, and it turned out to be 2 miles in the blazing mid-morning sun with lunch-time quick approaching. There were some neat thermal features in the basin, and it wasn't crowded at all. We saw Steamboat Geyser which recently made headlines with the first eruption in 8 years. We had just hoped to be making better progress towards Old Faithful at this point.

Norris geyser basin

Colorful bacteria!

Water break

Ask Paul if you really want to know about the black algae

After our longer-than-expected hike we continued to head south towards Old Faithful. We didn't have the heart to pull Lucia out of the car at all of the stops along the way, but we did make an exception for the Grand Prismatic hot spring, which was well-worth the stop. Paul got some great photos, but even these don't do the colors justice.

Grand Prismatic

Apparently these are bacteria - Ask Paul

As we approached the Old Faithful area, we weren't prepared for how much more crowded and busy the Old Faithful area was going to be, compared to the other areas we had stopped so far. We managed to find a parking spot right in front of the visitor center and walked towards Old Faithful and the crowd gathered. Within just a few minutes, Old Faithful went off. It was cool to see, but at this point we were all starving and a little crabby. We quickly grabbed our picnic supplies from the car and found a spot for lunch. After lunch we went back to the visitor center and wandered through the exhibits. As we left Yellowstone for the day and headed back to our camp, it started pouring rain. Paul made a quick dinner on the camp stove and we ate dinner in the comfort of our little cabin. We ate dinner on the floor since we couldn't reach our camp chairs in the moving truck. But the floor was clean because we could reach our broom and dustpan. Funny how things work out!

Just in time for Old Faithful

Our little cabin abode

Our plan is to spend tomorrow in the Tetons, get packed up, and head out very early Sunday morning in order to make it straight through to South Dakota.