Rebecca's Ramblings: Part II: Grand Teton National Park (a bit) and Yellowstone (a bit more!)

On Thursday, we explored downtown Jackson a bit, bought a few souvenirs (t-shirts and hats) and some mediocre pastries at The Bunnery. There's plenty of quaint stores to peruse, but I didn't press my luck. As we left Jackson we stopped at the cleverly-designed National Wildlife Art Museum. I love how it looked like it was built right into the mountain. We walked around viewing the outdoor sculptures but didn't have/make the time to visit inside.

Quick stops at Swabacher's Landing and Oxbow Bend were next, followed by lunch in Colter Bay and the Lakeshore Trail there.

Then, the PLAN was to leave GTNP behind and head up the Yellowstone so we'd have time to explore there before dark. Unfortunately there was a tourbus accident ahead of us on the only road leading toward Yellowstone. (We later heard that all 27 people on board were injured and several were evacuated via helicopter). We detoured to Leeks Marina for a bit and the nice guy behind the counter gave us free ice cream because he felt badly that our trip was postponed.

After relaxing a bit, we tried to get back on the road toward Yellowstone, but were told it might be closed for another couple of hours. We headed back to Colter Bay where we did a bonus hike to Heron Pond and Swan Lake, very different than the other mountain lakes we've seen -- lots of lily pads and reflections, plus deer and turkey vultures. We had a picnic dinner of cheese & crackers, fruit, yogurt, etc while waiting for the road to reopen. Some people get stuck for hours in traffic on highways -- we got stuck in beautiful GTNP. Not bad and not complaining!

The all-clear was given at 9:10, about five (or more) hours after the accident. I had some concerns about driving late at night (thanks to warnings via TripAdvisor) but so many cars headed north together that we formed a caravan and no animals dared block our path! We arrived at Grant Village close to 10:30 -- boy, oh boy, were we glad to arrive! As an aside, I'd like to add that we found a phone signal and called Grant Village at one point and they volunteered that they'd refund us if we weren't able to get up there that evening. I was relieved, but also getting mentally prepared to spend the night in our car (which, it seems, some people who were stuck in Yellowstone wound up doing).

On Friday, we slept late since we'd settled in so late the night before. After a hearty breakfast at the Grant Village Restaurant, it was time for the Upper Geyser Basin. First stop was the Visitor's Center where we could get the predictions for several of geysers. Next, it was onto Old Faithful, like everyone else. It got more and more crowded as the time drew near, but it did in fact erupt within five minutes of the predicted time. It's amazing to see how high the water got, the length of the eruption, as well as how predictable it is.

Anenome Geyser (which fills, spurts, and refills over and over) with Old Faithful Inn in the background

From there we explored the area and wound up chatting with a geyser gazer at Beehive, who told us the window for Beehive was rather large, but if the indicator geyser goes off, than we should come back because the bigger geyser would go off about twenty minutes later. Well, we hadn't walked more than ten feet away than the "indy" geyser started to spout. We sat on the bench and waited -- being told where to go if we wanted a geyser shower (which we didn't). Eventually Beehive went off, and the wind changed, too. Yes, we got a bit wet. The boys got more than a bit wet. It was amazing, and the water was not nearly as warm as I would've thought (phew!). The eruption was so long, loud, and constant -- absolutely spectacular!

The indicator geyser on the left and Beehive's cone on the right

We walked up to Riverside for a different type of geyser, one that spouted out as much as it spouted up. It was lovely, especially the sound of the water hitting water for this geyser is indeed "riverside".

We also saw the Castle geyser erupt, with its large cone, and then Grand Geyser, which got us a bit wet again and was worth the long wait (it was at the far end of its long window). Sadly, we missed seeing Daisy geyser, which went a bit early that afternoon.

Grotto Geyser -- didn't see this creepy one erupt

Castle Geyser

Grand Geyser lived up to its name!

Of course beyond the geysers, there were plenty of other thermal features in the Upper Geyser Basin. We spent the entire day there -- happy to do so at a leisurely pace without having to go somewhere else that day.

On Saturday, we planned to see Grand Prismatic Spring, but first we made an impromptu stop at the Black Sand Basin -- so glad we did. It was awesome with lots of steam throughout and a continuously spouting Cliff Geyser.

We walked down to the lovely Morning Glory hot spring from the Biscuit Basin parking lot, and then explored the basin itself with its lovely Sapphire Pool. We headed back to the OF area for a quick lunch at Hamilton Store then headed up to the Fairy Falls trail.

We've read that you can hike up the "social trail" (i.e., unmaintained and unmarked) for a better vantage point of the colorful Grand Prismatic Spring. It was a difficult climb actually; the sand was loose and the hill was steep, but boy oh boy, was it worth the effort! I've seen many pictures of GPS and I'm so happy to report that the colors really are that vibrant. It was terrific to see it from above. After the challenging hike back down, we intended to continue on the trail but distant thunder and lightning had us change our minds. We were sprinkled on a bit throughout the day, but not much, and the rain never did come. We drove to Midway Geyser Basin to walk the boardwalks around GPS but the parking lot was full so we just headed back to Grant and a nice dinner at the Lake House.

After dinner we took the short drive to West Thumb Geyser Basin. It was cool to see the geysers so close to, and sometimes in, Lake Yellowstone. More elk and bison sightings, but they never get old.

Kepler Cascades

On Sunday, we drove to Midway Geyser Basin to see the colors of Grand Prismatic Spring from ground-level, and we could indeed see some of the brilliant colors, even reflected in the steam. The Excelsior geyser crater there was enormous! It's hard to think of the Earth exploding like that to create such a crater!

Excelsior geyser crater

Fountain Paint Pots was a 'must' so we could see the big, bubbling mud oozing from the ground. The continuously erupting Clepsydra geyser and the loud Red Steamer vent (hot spring?) were bonuses! This area was particularly crowded.

A quick detour down Fountain Flat Drive allowed us to see bald eagles, gray egrets, and Trumpeter swans.

We were headed toward Roosevelt and wound up in the Canyon area for lunch, then headed south to Mud Volcano, with the cool and loud Dragon's Mouth Spring and more bubbling mud. There was a bison sitting on the edge of Sour Lake like he owned it!

More bubbling, gurgling mud!

We crossed the street to see Sulfur Cauldron, and three bison decided to do the same thing. Wow, they were huge. The boys had been a bit ahead of us so they got right in the car -- staring out the (raised) window at these ginormous beasts passing right by. So cool! Again, we saw a few people walking up to them for better pictues -- we just used our zoom! Then we crossed Dunraven Pass on our way to three nights at Roosevelt.

Pinnacles in the Tower area

Wildflowers galore!

Columnar basalt formations almost look like a fence across the mountain.

We settled into our little Roughrider Cabin, threw the baseball a bit, took a little walk, ate dinner on-site, then it was card games and a short walk to see the sunset and mule deer.