Yellowstone, Day 3

We woke up Thursday morning, ready to explore the park!  We started the day with breakfast at the Yellowstone Lake Hotel, and then went outside to explore the grounds a bit.

Sarah was THRILLED to see a bus parked outside of the hotel (buses are kind of a big deal in her world)!

Even PaPa got in on the excitement!

It was still pretty cold outside, so we didn't stay out long.  We walked down to the lake to admire the view, and PaPa helped improvise the means of keeping Sarah's ears warm seeing as how she had left her hat with Daddy and Kate back in the lobby of the hotel...

We warmed up briefly in the lobby, then we piled into our cars to go out and explore the world's first and finest national park!

Yellowstone's roads basically create a figure eight known as the Grand Loop.  Since we had more than one day to spend in the park, we dedicated our first day to visiting the spots along the southern part of the loop and we slowly worked our way up from Yellowstone Lake to Mammoth.  

Basically, we drove south along the lake to the Old Faithful area, but we made a few stops along the way!  Our first stop was at the West Thumb Geyser Basin.  It was beautiful, but it also made me glad that I had been reading "Good Night Yellowstone" and giving nightly safety talks to Sarah for the last three months...

It was still pretty cold (although thankfully not snowing!), so we didn't stay too long in this area, either.  We also had a lot of ground to cover, so we continued on our way toward Old Faithful.

We passed over the Continental Divide...

...and reached the Old Faithful area a little before 11:00, where we were lucky enough to be just in time for a predicted eruption!  We joined the crowds waiting alongside the famous geyser, and waited patiently (some more so than others!) for the show to begin.  

The waiting was made even more difficult by the fact that two geysers further out in the basin were clearly erupting spectacularly - we could see them shooting water high into the sky for 15 minutes while Old Faithful just kept producing steam.

  

The two active geysers (possibly Beehive and Castle or Grand Geysers, based on the length and height of their eruptions?!) are far in the background on the left.  Poor Old Faithful is in front on the right...

The, after 15 minutes of watching it steam...

...Old Faithful sprang to life, too!

An eruption of Old Faithful averages 1 1/2 to 5 minutes, expels 3,700-8,400 gallons of boiling water, and reaches heights of 106-184 feet. While this particular eruption was definitely on the smaller side, it was still a sight to behold! Sarah and Tom were both clearly impressed...

Since Sarah wouldn't put down my phone and Tom was suffering some serious withdrawal of his own (cell phone coverage is spotty in the park, and WiFi is non-existent), we headed to the Old Faithful Haynes Photo Shop where they could take pictures of themselves in front of a vintage Haynes postcard and email it to their all of their favorite friends and family!  Apparently, the Haynes family ran photo concessions for the park from 1884-1968.  The park has moved and restored the old photo shop, which now houses a variety of interactive kiosks that let visitors access vintage photos of the park.  We had fun looking through the 3-D viewers at old images, and Sarah loved pushing the button that changed the backdrop of the vintage postcard!

  

Grammie and PaPa joined in the fun...

...and Sarah even convinced Daddy to be in a picture with her!

Then we headed over to the Old Faithful Inn in search of some lunch.

I had been there before and I remembered how cool it was...I just hadn't remembered how COOL it was!  Thankfully, Sarah was more interested in lunch than she was in climbing to the top of the stairs to get a better look at the "crows nest" at the top of the lobby... 

We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the hotel's deli, then walked back outside in time to see a second eruption of Old Faithful.

This eruption was far more spectacular than the previous one, both in height and length of time.

Again, the wonder and awe my family felt at witnessing such raw beauty was apparent...

Kate was forgiven for sleeping through it, though!

We posed for a picture and then stopped into the visitors center to get a stamp in our National Parks passport (our very first one!).

We still had a way to go before we made it to Mammoth, so we loaded back into the car and started heading north again.  Sarah fell asleep in the car, so when we reached Fountain Paint Pot, Tom stayed with her while Kate and I went to explore with Grammie and PaPa.

We saw dead lodge pole pines with "bobby socks" left from the minerals in the water they absorbed...

...and pools with beautiful colors...

...and slowly boiling grey mud...

...and explosively boiling red mud with fumaroles that roared...

...and spouting geysers!

We posed for a few photos and then headed back to the car for our final push to Mammoth.

Even the car ride was exciting, though!  We saw both elk and bison along the way.

Some were closer than others - we could have touched this guy from the window of the car as he just meandered down the side of the road!

A while later, we met this fine fellow heading the opposite direction...

Then we were driving past the flats where Adam and Megan would soon be married and into the Mammoth area. (Seriously. Could they  have picked a more beautiful spot?)

We checked in to our cabin at Mammoth and grabbed some dinner before relaxing on the adorable front porch and admiring the view we had of the hot springs terraces. 

We also spent some time catching up with Adam, Megan, and some of the other wedding guests that evening before heading to bed so we could get in some more sight seeing the next morning!