America's Wonderland - Old Faithful

On our next-to-last day we woke up so early that there was frost on our windshield!  A was very unhappy to have to scrape ice in summer.

We were up so early to go on the Fairy Falls Frolic (yes, that's seriously the name of the hike), which was led by a ranger who took us to Fairy Falls and then on to Imperial Geyser.  She was a wealth of information, telling us all about the great fires of 1988 and how the dead trees are just now starting to fall while the new ones are growing taller.

The ranger showed us how a certain type of beetle leaves really intricate scroll work in the bark of trees.

We reached Fairy Falls, which is a very pretty waterfall almost hidden in the crevice of a hill.

After the Falls, we pressed on to Imperial Geyser, which few people who visit the park actually see since it's quite a hike.  It has beautiful colors and its vent is constantly erupting (not very high).

There was the largest mudpot we'd seen so far close by.

On the way back the ranger told us a bunch of bear stories (no sad endings!).  A and I got lucky again when the ranger clued us in to a discouraged illegal social trail which overlooks Grand Prismatic Spring.  That tip alone would have made the hike worth it.  We headed to Midway Geyser Basin to see the most famous spring.  It is gorgeous, but the view from the top of the (very steep) hill was 100 times better.  Once again, we were alone on the trail.

We made our own rock tower since it seems almost no one else hikes this trail.

We also saw some crystal clear springs.

We headed back to catch the Castle Geyser eruption.  Sadly it was just a minor eruption (not reaching its full height) but it still looked cool.

A family of buffalo showed the tourists who makes the right-of-way rules.

While picking up a snack, we saw some cool local beer.

After I got us some food and A grabbed an extra layer of clothing for both of us, we settled in to wait for the Grand Geyser to erupt.  It goes off every 14 hours in a 4-hour window, so we knew it could be a bit of a wait.  We were reassured by some "geyser gazers" that it was well worth it.  Geyser gazers are an elite group of people who are identified by stadium chair cushions, walkie-talkies, notepads, and ridiculous intriguing conversations about geyser indicators.  Basically, they are retirees who spend the entire day watching for certain signs that specific geysers are going to erupt, then informing each other as well as the park rangers (they don't have to do much work!).  We definitely used them to our advantage; they were more than willing to share their wealth of knowledge.

We ended up waiting three and a half hours for Grand, but it was more than worth it!  Tons of water shooting up to 200 feet in the air.

The best part: When the eruption appeared to be over, one geyser gazer stood on his bench and yelled, "Don't go anywhere! Get your cameras ready!"  And sure enough, the second burst was even more powerful.  (And apparently it doesn't happen all the time.)

Check out our (edited) video!  It erupted for a long time, so we clipped it for you.  Plus A decided to turn the camera to get the whole thing in view, so it needed rotated.

Coming up: Our last day in the park, and getting lucky again!