Day 9, September 8, 2018 - Northwest Mountains Expedition

Day 9, September 8, 2019 – Western Yellowstone and the Tetons

We wake up early once again in our excitement to explore more of Yellowstone and possibly see more wildlife.  More geysers are on the agenda for us to enjoy today, as Yellowstone hosts the most concentration of geysers than anywhere in the world.  A one-acre area has about 150 geysers!  So here are a few of the highlights of today –

Beryl Spring

Beryl Spring -– This is one of the hottest springs in Yellowstone, averaging 196 degrees F.  It is a large blue-green pool that loudly boils up to a height of 4 feet.  Pretty.

Gibbon Falls -– The falls drops down 84 feet in a gradual decent.  It’s a nice, peaceful spot along the Gibbon River.

Firehole Falls

Firehole Canyon Drive – The Firehole River gushes through a narrow canyon, creating a nice water falls to view.  Also, this area of the river is heated by the thermal activity from the upper geyser basin flowing into the river.  Because of this, the icy cold water of the river is actually very warm; and many people, including park staff, relish this area as a swimming hole.

Midway Geyser Basin – It’s beginning to rain hard now. But after

Runoff from
Excelsior Geyser Crater

waiting about 10 minutes, we were able to get a parking spot and made the trek up the boardwalk first to Excelsior Geyser Crater and then to the Grand Prismatic Spring.  Excelsior is the world’s largest geyser but is, for now, dormant. It is believed the powerful eruptions over the years damaged its delicate internal plumbing system, so now it boils as a productive hot spring most of the time. The Grand Prismatic is the largest hot spring in the United States and one of the three largest in the world. It is about 300 feet in diameter with beautiful deep azure blue water that is at a very hot 160 degrees F.  There is a dazzling array of colors around the edges of the spring due to the type of bacteria coming from the water.  While this was an awesome place to view, sadly the scenery and the quality of our pictures were very poor because of the rain.

Excelsior Geyser Crater

An attempt to capture the beauty
of the Grand Prismatic Spring

The beautiful colors around the
perimeter of the Grand Prismatic Spring

Old Faithful Inn

Old Faithful Inn -- What's a visit to this Yellowstone without a visit to it's iconic Old Faithful Inn?  It is a grand old building constructed in 1904. With it's massive log decor, large atrium surrounded by log railings on every level, massive stone fire place and it's hub-bub of activity of restaurants, gift shop and meeting place for guided tours, this is a beautiful reminder of the past mixed in with the modern present. Impressive.

Old Faithful Geyser

Old Faithful Geyser – Unlike other geysers, Old Faithful is still mostly faithful.  It is more or less consistent. Eruptions occur about every 75 minutes, give or take 15.  It shoots 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of boiling water in the air reaching an average height of 145 feet in just 15 to 20 seconds.  Eruptions typically last 1 ½ to 5 minutes.  Today Old Faithful did not disappoint, as it erupted at the precise posted time; and even our half-an-hour wait in the drizzling rain (we wanted a front-row seat among the several hundred viewers!) did not dampen our enthusiasm and awe in seeing the eruption!

Grand Tetons

We now head south and out of the Park to our evening’s destination in Jackson, WY. To get there we cross the Continental Divide two times before entering the Grand Teton National Park.  Being only 8 million years old, these mountains are the youngest range of the Rockies and are still growing. This 50-mile mountain range was formed by the movement of tectonic plates and is very unique because there are no foothills in front of it –- the mountains, without foothills, rise straight up out of the Jackson Hole valley. 

Even though the rain has stopped, the mountains were still shrouded in haze and clouds, so we did not see them in all their majesty.  But we still enjoyed the entire experience of driving through the most eastern route of the Park and were greeted by a herd of 200-300 bison at Oxbow Bend. It was a picture-taking frenzy! 

The Grand Tetons

All-in-all, it was another great day exploring the parks with their many wonders. We enjoyed dinner at Eleanor’s Again Bar and Grill in Jackson -– great food, many laughs, good company.  This evening we’re all totally exhausted –- early to bed, totally content with our many Blessings!