The unpredictability ~ a Yellowstone bonus!

(Saturday, July 18 ~ Old Faithful area)

After we finished up lunch at the lake, we settled in for the drive back to the Old Faithful area. Caleb was full of energy and was quite the little chatterbox in the backseat, checking his animal identification card and watching for animals. Kylie on the other hand let "the sleepies" get the best of her and she dozed for most of the nearly 40 miles between the two areas.

Due to the hunger/nap time meltdown on Thursday, we had missed taking a stroll around the lesser known geysers near Old Faithful and as we still had a few hours of daylight left, we opted to check things out.

Kylie modeling "safety" while balancing precariously on the belt for her to lean against and who really knows what Caleb was doing...

As luck would have it, we arrived just minutes before Old Faithful was scheduled to "do its thing" and we caught the show as we walked toward the other geysers. Kylie and Caleb were pretty unimpressed with it...

"Geyser? What geyser? Oh, that stinky water sprayer? Hey, are there any apples left, I'm hungry!"

Geyser Hill was worth the effort though. There were so many pretty pools tucked away in the landscape. The water was amazingly clear and the most beautiful shade of turquoise. Different ones had different colors ringing them due to the various bacteria that grew in them.

I don't remember what this one was called, and I hate that the lighting isn't quite right, but it was so beautiful with the orange rings around the blue water!

This was known as the Lion Group Geyser. Why? Because it sounded like there were lions inside the little holes, honestly, it sounded like growling. Caleb was enthralled with this one!

He was no so impressed, however, with Chinese Spring. Apple juice was much more appealing at the moment ~ it was a hot afternoon...

And then we got the bonus excitement of the unpredictability of Yellowstone! Just as we were headed toward Beehive Geyser (less than 100 feet away!), we heard a rush of steam and then it began to erupt!

What a fun surprise!

Beehive averages shooting water about 200 feet into the air for about five minutes. The noise it put off was really impressive!
And then it was over, but what a fun memory! We felt lucky to have seen it as currently Beehive is erupting at intervals ranging from eight hours to five days!

As we walked off Geyser Hill Kylie found some flowers to stop and smell. She wasn't just taking time "to smell the roses" but was actually trying to clear the "stinky" (sulphur) smell from her nose!
One other thing that Ian and I were curious to see there was the Old Faithful Inn. The lodge is open to the public so we decided to see what all the "hub-ub" was about.














We both admit to being pretty impressed that such a structure was built at the turn of the last century! On the way back to the car I noticed another warning about wild animals in the park.

We did well with the bears (the one we saw had to have been at least 150 yards away ~ even more if you count the vertical distance he had on us) but with the buffalo, not so much. How about 75 inches?

On our way out of the park I blew kisses at the Nez Perce and then we were headed for dinner. I think the woman in the CR-V in front of us had been in the park for a few days too. First day folks were reaching for their cameras at this "close encounter of the elk kind." Not our Honda friend ~ check out her expression in her mirror!

Last stop before a final campfire at the campground? Dinner in the (tourist trap) town of West Yellowstone. That's where I got this shot. I just have to post it again because I think it is a good summary of how my kids are wired differently.

Can I get an AMEN from anyone else with at least one boy and one girl in the house?
On the patio of the place we had dinner. The ambiance was great, the food ~ well, it was "ho-hum." I just had to include this shot because I think Ky did a great job of catching her Daddy's smile!

One more campfire to roast marshmallows...

And all too soon, our time in Yellowstone came to an end. Sunday morning we had the car packed and ready to go.
There was time for one last family picture (to remember our cute little cabin) and then it was Pop-Tarts for breakfast again as we made our way south back toward Salt Lake City. We were all sad to go, but I have a feeling that won't be our last trip out west as a family, and next time we'll be a family of five!