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Today actually looked promising. It was dry as we entered the village of West Yellowstone and went for a hunt for rain gear for the trail ride.
Luckily we were unsuccessful; We reluctantly decided to cancel the trail ride after all. The people from the organization warned us; only the second day would have a chance of being a dry day and the night would get very cold.
As we entered the Yellowstone Park, the clouds began looking threatening again and Hass decided to shut the roof of our Convertible.
And soon after, the liquid ‘sunshine’ came down with no mercy. However, this was our last day for the park and I was determined to see some of the features that we ignored on our way in.
The first stop were the “Paint-pots”. These are actually acid basins that slowly dissolve the rock and make a bubbling mud pool.
As we are both real nature people, our enjoyment just grew with every raindrop drenching our trousers – not.
However, we stayed brave and though the mood dropped a bit, I still was fascinated by the show nature put on. Unfortunately the weather gods have seen a challenge in that and just poured a little extra water down on us at our next stop.
The trail ride and this where the moments I had been most looking forward too. Since the trail ride won’t happen, I decided that I would float in an ark to the “Prismatic Springs”. Unfortunately it doesn’t help to be determined when Fate has decided, some other part of your trip is supposed to become your highlight.
The steam emanating from the geysers made it near impossible to see anything of the beauty.
Still we paused and warmed ourselves in the hot steam and sometimes, when the wind had mercy with my disappointed soul, I got rewarded for my determination. The glimpses of the colored rim were breathtaking for me. I guess Hass was a bit underwhelmed as most of the visitors had been.
Though not what I hoped for, I was happy we went up there. I didn’t realize it then, but now, sitting by the fire, the steam and colors and the shapes, patterns and structures of the bacteria is working it’s way down to my subconsciousness and maybe even kick-starts my creative flame again…..
Last on our list for the ‘Must See’ was “Old Faithful”. I am sure the rest of the geysers are stunning and some of the steam pools have amazing colors, but with this weather it was hard to muster the appropriate enthusiasm. We are agreeing though, we should come back some day with a motorcycle to give it another shot.
We first had lunch and maybe missed the last eruption by just a few minutes, maybe by an hour. “Old Faithful” erupts ever 48-127 minutes. Hass found a Ranger and got informed that the next eruption would be in 56 minutes, give or take 10 minutes. Just within the time frame that we were prepared to wait for. Luckily the weather gods had played enough with us and gave us the gift of cloudy sunshine.
The eruption was scarily on time. I expected a rumble under the earth to announce the nature spectacle, or a smell or a noise, but he quietly started bubbling water, then the steam thickened and the water just started climbing. … The height was impressive, but this time – I am ashamed to say – I was underwhelmed. Still I think it was worth the wait.
Hass offered that I can have another shot at taking pictures at the prismatic springs, now that it was dry. I happily accepted, though this time around it was not less steamy. I could take some more time with details and patterns though as you can see here in the gallery:
Here are my photos about Yellowstone:
