Our First visit to Yellowstone National Park

One of our main places to visit during our 2020 journey out west was Yellowstone National Park.  With the Covid-19 pandemic, we weren't sure this was going to happen.  We have missed out on visiting so many places already and I was praying that this would not be one of them.  We were ready for the odds to finally be ever in our favor.

Yahoo!  As it so happened, they announced they would be opening the west gate and a couple of the gift shops on June 1st.  I am so excited since this is the very week we would be there!  I was so relieved that this was not another trip in vain!  So it was time to start planning our drive!  Here's hoping to see lions and Tigers and BEARS!  Well, maybe not lions and tigers but hopefully at least bears!

Wakeside Lake RV Park

I had booked us in the town of Rexburg Idaho which is about an hour south of Yellowstone's West Gate.  This small park had excellent cell coverage according to T-mobile's map.  (All of my choices for parks are due to this major priority of ours since that is the provider D uses for his work.  This has often resulted in us staying near major highways or far from the places we plan to visit.

In this case, it was both!  There was quite a bit of noise from the busy highway and it also ended up being a much longer drive to Yellowstone than we had expected.  Oh well,  I do have a sound machine I can use and D doesn't mind the extra driving.

Yellowstone National Park

Walkway to the Fountain Paint Pot and Silex Spring

Our timing to the park couldn't have been better as far as traffic and crowds.   We have heard and read of horrible crowds, unbelievable road jams, and no parking to be had.   I guess the pandemic decided it owed us one.   I'll take it!  At most of the sites, there were very few people so we had no problem with getting good photos and were able to take our time as well.

This trip turned out to be the 1st of 2 we would take.   Our goal for this one was to see the Grand Prismatic Spring and. of course, Old Faithful.  Since there was very little traffic, we also had high hopes of seeing a lot of animals.   Well, that didn't happen!  The only wild things we saw on the first trip were tourists & bison and on the 2nd go around, we saw one, and I mean just one, elk.. without its antlers!  What's up Yogi? Where are you?

Since this visit was during the work-week, we once again had to wait until after 2pm to head up.  We arrived at the west gate at 4pm and found that Old Faithful is an hour's drive once you enter the park.   We figured that if we only visited the two sites and didn't hit any traffic or parking issues that would have us getting back to the RV around 8pm.   As it turned out, it was more like 9:30pm when we arrived back and no dinner to boot! So worth it, though!

1st Stop:
Fountain Paint Pot Trailhead

Along with the smelly, bubbling mud pots at this site, there is also the great Fountain Geyser spewing hot water into the air, and the Silex Spring.  The boardwalk that leads out to them follows along this huge gravel area that could be straight out of a Stephen King novel.  We didn't dare come off of the path for being afraid of being disintegrated right there on the spot!

Fountain Paint Pots. Smelly! Think sulfur x 10

More bubbly mud pots

2nd Stop: 
The Excelsior Geyser and the Grand Prismatic Spring

At this stop, we did run into a few folks.   Still, the crowd was very small and we had no problem finding a parking spot for Benjamin and visiting this beautiful spring and geyser.  The Prismatic Spring is Yellowstone's largest hot spring at 330 feet wide and 121 feet deep.  The yellow, orange, brown, and green colors of the spring are caused by microscopic organisms called thermophiles that live there.

The Grand Prismatic Spring

Excelsior Geyser Crater

3rd Stop: 
Old Faithful
The long-anticipated journey is over!  We have arrived at Old Faithful at last!  I am for sure marking this off the ole bucket list!
Upon arriving, the parking lot was just about empty due to the fact it was already 6pm.  The first thing we did was go to the general store that was OPEN and check the schedule for the next eruption.  Turns out that we had a 45-minute wait.  Oh well!  Nothing to do but shop and wait, I guess.   I did not come this far to walk away without seeing it erupt.  After buying the souvenir tee, we walked the short distance to the geyser and found an empty bench and began the wait. 

 
30 minutes later, just as predicted, it began to spew its steam.  A minute and a half later it was over.  Wait!  What?  No one told us the geyser eruption was only 90 seconds long!  Really?!  Oh well, time to roll on down the road.

 

Final Stop:
Bison Sightings Along the Way

Our first trip to Yellowstone has come to an end and now it is time to plan our return trip.  But first, we will be visiting Idaho Falls and then a quick stay in Jackson (Hole), Wyoming.

Dennis' two cents worth: I noticed that the park rangers were being very rabid about speeders in the park, so I made SURE that we stayed with the speed limit!  We also saw MANY fly fishermen out in the rivers and have become inspired to learn to fish for the first time in my life.  I will probably start with something easier & less expensive than fly-fishing, of course.