We left camp a little earlier today, headed for Old Faithful. It was a 30 mile drive that took us over two hours. The 14 mile drive to Madison was pretty uneventful as compared to yesterday. We drove right past the Bison . . kinda Bisoned out! Our destination was Old Faithful but once on the South Loop we had to make the Firehole Canyon loop a side trip. The loop is via a very narrow, one-way road, with virtually no guard rails between the road surface and the river, sometimes a hundred feet below. The Firehole river takes a turn through a deep gorge and we stopped to view Firehole Falls. The Firehole is another trophy trout river.
The gorge drive was beautiful but we soon rejoined the main road south to old Faithful, bypassing many elements of the region, including Fountain Flat Drive (which contained an entire Bison herd), Firehole Lake Drive, Lower Geyser Basin, Midway Geyser Basin, home of the Grand Prismatic Spring and Black Sand Basin before reaching the Old Faithful area. It would take several days to see these areas in their entirety.
We waited about 55 minutes to see this eruption, holding “first row seating”. Jason was very calm and waited patiently for the eruption. He was not disappointed.
After the crowd cleared, we headed to the iconic Old Faithful Inn. This bus was waiting to depart as we watched the crew roll up the soft top, giving the passengers a total “moon roof” view.
The Old Faithful Inn is possibly the largest log building in the world and the fireplace weighs more than 500 tons! Inside the facility, we saw the largest pendulum-driven clock in the world on the chimney in the main entrance room. This clock spans two levels and was damaged in the 1959 earthquake and suffered numerous breakdowns since. The original manufacturer has gone out of business so there is no warranty! I believe it has been repaired as is currently operation thanks to volunteers. A massive timepiece for a massive building!
Here are Cathy and Jason on the third floor, looking down at me on the second floor, (resting on a very large period sofa).
We decided to have lunch at the Inn and after a short wait, were seated. The Old Faithful Geyser viewing crowd descended all at once on the restaurant, inundating it but we had spent an hour or so taking in the immediate scenery and shops thus experienced minimal wait time. Cathy and Jason are enjoying their meals. For those concerned I also had lunch.
We took Jason to the museum in the Visitor Education Center, which conveniently had a children’s section. Jason thoroughly enjoyed going through the educational exhibits and viewing examples of animals that are in the park. We also watched a 20 minute Yellowstone film in the main theater.
Upon exiting the museum, we decided to take a walk around the nearby Upper Geyser Basin, which contains more than a quarter of the world’s geysers, all within sight of the Inn! The Geyser Hill Loop Trail, which we decided to walk contains the largest concentration of geysers in the world! While waiting for Cathy to return to the car to drop off some excess baggage (from the shopping), Jason and I watched a second eruption of Old Faithful.
We crossed the Firehole River and began going through the geyser field.
An unnamed boiling spring/pool was along the trail.
“Pump Geyser”. The geysers along this trail have irregular eruptions, sometimes with month-long waits between events.
There are incredible colors of the outflow from Pump Geyser.
“Sponge Geyser”
“Double Pool Geyser”(s)
Unnamed, brilliant blue boiling spring
Aptly named “Beach Geyser”
“Ear Geyser”
Unnamed, brilliant amber toned spring/pool
“Liberty Pool” geyser
“West Triplet Geyser” was beginning to erupt in the distance. That is Jason dragging Cathy down the boardwalk to get up close and personal.
West Triplet in full eruption. We consider ourselves very fortunate to be able to view two of the premier geysers in action during this visit!
West Triplet began winding down. Notice the high pressure venting to the left of the main surface vent.
Belgian Pool
Spasmotic Geyser (really). This feature had a grouping of smaller geysers erupting in a large array, some very near the boardwalk.
Crossing back over the Firehole, looking both North and South. There were numerous fly fishermen/persons suiting up downstream.
Crested Pool. This pool is one of the hottest of the 10,000 such pools spread over the 2,000,000 acres, and contains superheated waters. Water is considered “Superheated” when it reaches 2 to 3 degrees over boiling.
Shield Spring
Castle Geyser Dome. Thousands of years of eruptions have deposited the minerals building this cone (Old Faithful is relatively young in comparison). Castle Geyser has dramatically changed its surroundings. By altering soil chemistry, this geyser has devoured part of a pine forest and turned it into a thermal desert. Tree skeletons are entombed within the cone.
Travelling with the Schinglers 
We were there in 2015 and did the same things. When you were little, Grandma insisted on seeing every geyser,, so I bowed out on that. We still had a bear go through the campground though!
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