Old Faithful and the Inn

I know I’ve said it before, but Wow, what a great day we’ve had! As planned, we headed for Old Faithful first thing this morning. It was a bright sunny day, and we slowly worked our way to the Madison Junction, and then on to Old Faithful. But in lieu of stopping at every ‘picture point’ along the way as planned, we decided to drive through, planning to stop on our way back.

But if you’ve learned anything about us by now, it’s that we don’t always do what we’ve planned. We got to Old Faithful just as it was losing its punch. In other words, we missed the darn thing by only a couple of minutes! So we found a log far enough away to enable us to photograph the geyser without any people in the shots. Then we set up our tripods, and sat on the log to await the next ‘show’.

The wait was pleasant except for the periodic blasts of wind. The sky was blue with beautiful cumulus clouds, and the temp was around 60 degrees.

Now I’ll admit that Old Faithful was about the last thing on my Yellowstone ‘must see’ list. Although it is probably the largest attraction in the park for most people, it just wasn’t that important to me personally. But after waiting for about an hour and a half, it started to periodically shoot little spirts of water and steam into the air, until gradually it erupted into a full blown geyser.

We both started shooting, and when the ‘show’ was over, I rolled back the video to see what I had captured. I found that shortly after the geyser really started spewing its water and steam, without even realizing it I said, “Oh, wow!” I didn’t even realize I had spoken while the video was rolling. So obviously, I was much more impressed than I expected to be. And I will admit after the fact, that I am very glad we took the time to visit Old Faithful.

Next stop, the Old Faithful Inn; and what a sight it was! We walked into the hotel lobby, and I think both our mouths dropped open. Although we had seen TV programs about Yellowstone many times, the wow factor that you get when you walk into the hotel is so much better than the TV programs. The fireplace is massive. So large in fact that I think this 5’10” person could easily stretch out in its opening. The stone work is beautiful, and all the log railings and trims are so appropriate for a place like Yellowstone.

After we managed to close our gaping mouths, we strolled around for a bit, and then headed to the dining room for lunch. Just as we reached the door which leads into the dining room, they posted a sign which said ‘Dining room closed; will reopen at 4:45PM for dinner. Needless to say, I was really, really, really upset. One of the things on my mental to do list in Yellowstone was to visit the Inn, and take time for lunch while there.

Well, off we went to the gift shop, me still pouting internally like a spoiled kid who didn’t get his, oops her way. Well, after a spin through the gift shop, and only a minor purchase, Sal suggested that we go for a panini sandwich. Bless his heart, he’d figured out a way to give me lunch in the Inn, even though it wasn’t in the dining room. We both thoroughly enjoyed our vegetarian paninis (no, we aren’t vegetarians), and I could cross lunch in the Old Faithful Inn off my to do list. By the way, Sal did offer to come back tomorrow for lunch or dinner in the dining room. But a sandwich was enough for me. So we can spend tomorrow seeing something we haven’t seen yet.

We took a few more shots of the Inn under renovation (it’s getting a new roof), and then headed back toward Gardiner. But as we said before, we don’t always stick to plan. In lieu of retracing our morning trip, we decided to take the road to the West Thumb, and skirt the Yellowstone Lake. Then drive through the Hayden Valley in hopes of seeing wolves. What we saw were miles and miles of evergreens, and then that breathtaking Yellowstone Lake with mountains in the background. We took some photos from one of the pullouts, but the clouds were low enough to be almost on the top of the mountains. Although we were awe struck by the beauty of it all, the camera eye just didn’t capture it.

While in the Hayden Valley we saw a few Bison, and a half dozen or so Elk; but no wolves. However, we did note that there are not nearly as many wildlife of any kind in that part of the park, when comparing it to the Madison River area or Lamar Valley.

Enough for today, thanks for traveling with us. And thanks for allowing me a little public temper tantrum.
Fay