Great Road Trip of 2017.....Part Thirteen/Day Eleven

Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eleven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twelve of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

We made it to Yellowstone later that day.

Hubs and I pose in front of the sign.

The Usual Suspects with the sign....

While we were standing and waiting our turn with the sign, some 

Asian tourists approached Joel and in broken English and sign language asked him to take their photo with the Yellowstone sign.

Kim said, "He's the last person they should have asked." as he can hardly hear, shakes and doesn't know how to take a good photo. lol  She made sure they looked at what he shot before we left. 8-)

Kim perusing the current edition of "What's Happening" in the park......

Passing the Firehole River as it rushes toward the Firehole Falls.

A pretty meadow on a warm Summer day.

And then we spotted our first Bison of the trip.

This was most probably a mature male due to his size and him being alone.  I didn't get a good look at "the undercarriage" to confirm the gender however. lol

Fairly quickly we were driving into an area with volcanic activity aka geothermal hot springs.

A "dead" lake with a hot spring smoking in the background.

                                             

When they warn you to stay on the trails and/or boardwalks, they mean it.  The ground is unstable at the least and you can fall into a boiling hot spring at the worst.

Here's the Celestine Pool.

The smell of sulfur is sometimes overpowering at you walk near some of these geothermal features.

More warning signs(they are everywhere!).   I guess they don't want to take a chance on anybody getting injured.  There were a large number of foreign tourists the day we were at Yellowstone and a number of them didn't speak or understand English(I know because of some of this bus tour individuals got separated from their group, they had a big placard hanging from their necks with messages in English like, "I am lost and from bus #XXX" so they could get someone to point them towards their bus or group.)  Yellowstone seriously needs to invest in some International Symbol signs!  Even though I am sure the tour guides for the foreign travelers communication the dangers of walking in certain places in the park.  But we saw foreign tourists disregarding all the signage and walking on the ground next to boardwalks, not on them.

One of the more colorful springs in the Fountain Paint Pots area........

Oh goody!  Boiling mud.......

The photo above is a "fumarole".  That's a vent or opening on the surface where volcanic gases are allowed to escape.

Another fumarole with vapor activity.......

Kim, Joel and Hubs walked further on the trail around this area so they saw Artesia and White Dome Geysers as well.  I took a break and sat by the Fountain Paint Pots for awhile.

Then we took the car and drove over to the parking area and lodges near Geyser Hill.

Kim's backside as we approached the viewing area for Old Faithful from Snow Lodge where a gift shop is located.  OF was set to go off in about a half hour, but as with an natural phenomenon, you can't set your watch by the predictions of timing.  While Old Faithful is fairly regular, you no longer can set a watch by it. 8-)

Lots of steam coming off the geysers on Geyser Hill.....

Studying the map of the area while we wait......

Some geyser activity started on the hill.

When got to the bleachers at the viewing area there were very few people there since we went up early.  Look at the massive throng of people waiting to my right all along the boardwalk past the Old Faithful Lodge.  What you can't see are the folks on my left AND all the ones standing up in the back too!

And the show begins on "Old Faithful's timetable".........

Here's some video I shot of the Old Faithful Geyser......

The geysers didn't disappoint.  It got it's name in 1870 when a survey/expedition party was in the area that was to become Yellowstone Park.  This particular cone geyser was noted to erupt approximately ever 74 minutes and one of the party's members, Nathaniel Pitt Langford, wrote in his notes that they(the folks in the expedition party) gave it the name "Old Faithful".

I noticed this rock and stick formation someone had created and left on the edge of the walkway back toward the gift shop.  It's meaning/significance is unknown. 8-)

We proceeded to walk around in the gift shop.....

Let's commercialize the geyser to the hilt and brand everything Old Faithful. lol

Well here's MY name.........lol

I couldn't talk Hubs into lugging this case of "Moose Drool" brown ale all the way back to PA....lol

Me relaxing on a primitive style chair outside of the gift shop......

Kim also relaxing with what else but her every present Diet Coke......

Hubs ready for more with his walking stick he brought on the trip that he bought at the Sequoyah Museum in Tennessee years earlier.

Kim and I goofing off in the Yellowstone "Be a Ranger" photo-op board for kids. lolz

And then it was time to head out, back to Ashton Idaho and the ranch.  I love this shot of Kim and Joel I took from the backseat.  Kim in holding what is left of a cinnamon bun she bought and they shared on the drive back. 8-)  Yes, Kim is a sweets "enabler". lol

Back through the park to the Western entrance......

And wouldn't you know, when we got to that meadow we had passed on the way in, that solitary bison was still there, hours later!  He was laying down but basically in the same spot.

I said I suspect that the park chains him out there to that spot, so that visitors are sure to see a bison. lol  Ok, chains wouldn't hold him there but they must lure him with food or something.  I thought it was fishy.....

And a couple of hours later we were back at the ranch and ready to end our day.

Sluggy