The All Weather Coats: Day 5

This was our last morning in the Grand Tetons as we were moving on to Yellowstone today. I took one last hike down to Jackson Lake to take some photos and then we packed up and headed north.

Crossing into Yellowstone was a funny sensation - I felt like I should jump for joy! I think after years of hearing and reading about a place, there's a funny sense of accomplishment when you finally get to be there. I guess I had the same kind of feeling when we were on the Great Wall.

We stopped first at a place called West Thumb Geyser Basin. It's a side shoot of Yellowstone Lake and our first encounter with the geothermal features of the park. As Stevie said, he always thought of Yellowstone as just Old Faithful and the animals. He had no idea how many varied and beautiful features there were there!

The hot springs were reminiscent of the waters off of Okinawa, except this water was around 170 degrees! We learned that when a hot spring is blue, it means the water temperature is over 165 degrees. No microrganism can live in water above that temperature. When you see oranges and greens and reds in the water, it means the temperature is cooler.

Hot springs.

Yellowstone Lake in the background

Even though these photos show us in bright sunshine, the minute we got back to the car and started off down the road, a storm blew in with thunder, lightning and rain. Fortunately, by the time we got to our next stop, Old Faithful, the weather had again cleared.

Old Faithful is called that because it's the most predictable geyser in the park. It faithfully erupts every 35 to 120 minutes. The park posts the next predicted time and you can call to check on the next time. We didn't. But by all great coincidences, the minute we walked up to the geyser, it started erupting! Couldn't have planned it any better if we tried!

After the eruption, we went into the visitor's center and wandered around the boardwalks through other geothermal features.

By the time we'd hit the gift shop, it was time for the geyser to blow again so we stuck around and watched a second show.

After the second eruption, we piled in the cars and made a bee-line to our next cabin - a restored log cabin in the middle of nowhere just outside the north entrance to the park. It was awesome! Six bedrooms, a full kitchen, a wrap-around porch and a trampoline!