Sunday September 27: The Old Faithful Inn

After 3 nights at the cute cabin at the Lakefront Lodge, we moved to the other side of the park.

The lodge itself was again one of the amazing things about this park. It looks just like you would think it should! Built in 1920.

On the way to our next stop -  the Old Faithful Inn - we found the Yellowstone Falls. Steve was feeling energetic and decided to walk down the trail near the lower falls.


The sign was accurate :-)

Keep in mind that the altitude here is about 8,000 feet.

He said it was worth the climb .....






There are quite a few waterfalls in the park - I believe we stopped and looked at each and every one :-)

We also crossed the continental divide three times as we drove from one part of the park to another. The neat thing was a lake right on the divide that flows both east and west when it overflows!

After another lunch in a picnic area, we arrived at the Old Faithful Inn. This one was built in the early 1900's.

Like stepping back in time ... once again!

No TV, no phones, no air conditioning, no hair dryer - again :-) - and this time, no bathroom!

Hence the supplied bathrobes! It was just like being back in college with the bathrooms with showers down the hallway.

Again a unique experience - although one night of it was enough for me!

And of course the main draw in this area of the park is Old Faithful!!

We managed to see the geyser erupt 3 or 4 times from various viewpoints. My favorite was from the second floor porch of the Inn.

The rest of our time in the park was spent checking out the thousands of thermal features (you can be just driving around and along the road is a hole with steam coming out!) in the park.

Sometime quiet pools of steaming water were alongside areas of geysers that would erupt at varying intervals.

Just an incredible landscape.

One of the most interesting areas of the park were those that were burned in the wildfires of 1988.

The doomsday folks were out as well as very vocal critics of the National Park Service and it's change in fire control policy in the early 70's: basically it was changed to monitor but not necessarily try to suppress the natural fires started by lightning.

Almost 800,000 acres were affected by the fires and it was so evident in areas where so many dead trees are still standing 25 years later. But also in the areas affected by the fires are new stands of pines that are now growing. It's quite interesting. Check it out by clicking here.

And FINALLY - we found the elk!!! We were within 15 miles of leaving the park. It was late in the day and a bit overcast.

In the last meadow, there was a group of 15 elk just hanging out and eating.

Such beautiful animals ....

And that was Yellowstone! Time to head back to the farm for a couple of weeks ......

Will start the blog back mid-October as we head to California for six weeks ... watch out Becky - here we come!!!