I woke up early again, this time to the soft hum of a few cars on the lake road and the twitter of birds. As Jason and the kids stirred, I suggested going early to the shower houses at Fishing Bridge since we didn't get our planned showers the night before. Jason had the idea to then make sandwiches in the car for breakfast, instead of going back to camp to cook, and getting to Old Faithful much earlier than planned.
This turned out to be our best idea for Yellowstone. With more than 800,000 people visiting Yellowstone in July, the crowds are tremendous. The Old Faithful Visitors Center alone gets 11,000 visitors daily. We knew this while planning our trip, but decided to make the most of it. As it turns out, one of the best ways to do that is to hit the road by 7 a.m. or earlier and visit your must-sees before noon.
Mornings are also perfect for seeing wildlife. As we drove around the lake, three elk crossed the road in front of us, then a white tailed deer, then a white tailed deer and fawn, and finally we saw this bull elk grazing by the road:
We got to Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin by 9 a.m. and were so surprised. We had plenty of parking to choose from and only a few people were wandering around the boardwalks. We ran into a ranger who was giving a centennial talk in a few minutes and popped in the visitors center to buy Junior Ranger and Young Scientist booklets.
Old Faithful Visitors Center
The visitor center's ranger message board. Read the final note.
That's what happens when you camp on a super volcano.
Yellowstone offers dozens of ranger programs every day throughout the park.
Bring a copy of the program schedule with you. You won't regret it.
We quick picnicked at our van and then headed up the road through the Midway and Lower Geyser Basins, hoping to see Grand Prismatic Spring. Throughout the afternoon, we would drive by the famous spring four times desperately trying to find a parking spot, to no avail. This is when we really started to see the crowds of Yellowstone. We eventually decided to just drive along and find any parking spot and tour where we ended up. It worked well, as we had the chance to see many more hot springs, geysers and vents.
First, we walked the boardwalks at Fountain Paint Pot Nature Trail:
Celestine Pool
Bacteria Mat
Fountain Paint Pot
Spasm Geyser
We tried to go to Fairy Falls, but once we reached the parked lot we realized it was a nine-mile hike to the falls. That's a no-go, even for my hiking-happy family.
Next, we drove Firehole Canyon Drive and stopped at Firehole Falls. I love that you can just stumble across the most beautiful and diverse creations while driving through the park.
We passed the Firehole Canyon Swimming Hole on our way out of the loop. It's one of only two swimming holes in the park. There were cars parked all over the roadside, with no room to spare, otherwise we would have spontaneously taken everyone swimming. It looked like so much fun hiking down into the canyon (stairs and ramps) and enjoying the spring-fed river. We're putting this on our to-do list for next time.
We drove up further to Madison and near Norris, letting the kids sleep for a bit and taking in the sites. As we got closer to Norris, traffic suddenly came to a standstill. We're not sure how far along it was backed up, nor what was causing it. It also started to rain lightly, so we turned around and headed back south.
Once back in the Upper Geyser Basin we stopped at the Black Sand Basin to see the hotsprings and geysers. All of these geothermal features are amazing and so different from one another - while all doing the wonderful work of releasing pressure from the super volcano. There were very few people there so it felt so relaxing and rejuvenating to walk around the boardwalks.
We drove back to our campsite and were shocked to find this:
Huge limbs and chunks of sawed-off pine trunk were piled up all around our campsite and the one next to ours. Saw dust, pine needles and branches littered the road. We backed in and immediately approached out neighbors to learn the story. At about 2 p.m. that afternoon, while we were experiencing light rain in the geyser basins, a very strong, localized storm blew in right over our campground loop. Some sort of mini tornado or strong winds knocked down an entire towering pine tree and took off the top of a nearby pine as well. The tree came crashing down on the parking spot right next to our camp. That parking spot had contained a car and two people just five minutes earlier. Miraculously, no one was hurt and nothing was damaged. Park rangers had already cut up the tree and moved it off the road by the time we arrived in late afternoon.
Neighbors across from us watched the entire storm and said the winds were so bad right over our campsite that they were impressed our tent held fast.
We were so shaken. And so very thankful that no one was hurt.
The tree fell where the silver sedan is now parked, just five minutes after the couple left.
Here is the trunk of the fallen tree. It's about as wide as Jason's circled arms.
The nearby pine lost its top. I'm not even sure how that happens.
What an incredible first full day in Yellowstone.
P.S. It rained again that night (in a drought no less!) and I awoke several times, so nervous after the fallen pine. All was well, thankfully.
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