Yellowstone

7/20

                After our hike, work needed to be done.  We set about taking down tents and repacking our bags.  It seems that every day there is a new system and order and you can never expect to find something in one place for more than a day.  We left the camp around 9am, a disappointing turnaround time according to my dad.  I took it upon myself to take the wheel and drove for two hours on our way to “Palisades Falls.”  It was a fond hike of my mother’s when she had lived in Montana as a young girl and I was not disappointed.  The hike was moderate, not too steep and cut right through the woods but the walk was worth it as it opened into a rock filled clearing with a river flowing through it.  The white rocks that had been seen throughout the hike were in sharp contrast to the dark sandy colored ones littering the base of the waterfall.  Finn and I had reached it before the rest of our family and walked right up to the falls, not a thundering, rushing or very powerful waterfall we challenged each other to attempt to scale the slick, water covered edges of the falls.  Instead, we sprinted up the steep, loose rock strewn covered sides of the valley and perched on high peaks looking for photo ops as the rest of our family made their way to the falls.  After we had seen all there was to see in the lush forest and vertigo causing falls we climbed a rugged path. Finn and I to look out over a vast canyon just around the bend of the waterfall, everything about the hike had been eye catching and note worthy and I was glad my mom could enjoy the trail again, reliving childhood memories.  Leaving Palisades falls we headed for a famous national park, “Yellowstone”.  It is a place you hear about all the time in your life but never can really grasp the beauty of it until you enter the park and see for yourself the wonders it has in store.  Every single campground in the park had been filled and luckily we had made a reservation at Madison campground.  Amazingly, it was the fourth campsite without a single mosquito.  It seemed as though there were enough mosquitoes at the campsite at Lake Erie to last us the whole trip.  I for one was pleasantly surprised.  After hastily setting up and pulling out our needed bags we still had a lot of day light left and a massive park to explore.  Leaving the wife at the site, my dad took the boys out for a loop drive of the park stopping at interesting locations along the way.   Before reaching any of Yellowstone’s famed attractions we saw two female elk and a third later on the drive.  It was our first taste of elk on the trip and for a while we had trouble determining if it was in fact an elk and not a moose.  Our first stop before “Old Faithful” was a mud paint pot.  This site had a variety of different natural wonders to see including a sulfur smelling hot spring and bubbling, heated mud pit.  The hot spring looked inviting and was a crystal clear oasis; the only thing letting you know something was off was the smelly steam rising from the surface of the water.  I had never seen such feats of nature and was drawn to the many earthquake caused attractions Yellowstone had to offer.  The main goal of our expedition that evening was to witness “Old Faithful” not the biggest but possibly the most famous geyser in the world.  Going off every 90 minutes for just a few minutes it can shoot up 80 to 100 feet tall spouts of super heated water.  Before arriving at this destination, we found a way to pass the time.  Paul, my dad and I drove to the popular location on Firehole River.  It has a swimming hole that seemingly hundreds of people come to enjoy.  The warm water is heated by a hot springs runoff and its location is beautiful.  The Firehole river is a river with slight rapids that runs through a large canyon with jagged rocks and a wide beautiful blue sky presenting a sun that beats down on your back as you lounge in the shallow, warm and clear water.  Paul and I struggled with the current which made it all the more fun but suffered some bumps and bruises as we allowed ourselves to float down the water slide type rapids that hid many a sharp or large rock.  I had the misfortunate of going down them twice though the fall is short it can give you some aches and pains.  We left the swimming hole just in time and made it to “Old Faithful” with minutes to spare.  A huge crowd had turned out and they stretched along the boardwalk surrounding the geyser and rows upon rows of people leading back almost to the park lot.  We pushed our way into the front row and I set up with the video camera while my dad took pictures.  As the geyser teased its spectators who watched with baited breath as steam intensified and water broiled, we watched and waited.  When it finally erupted its height gradually grew until it reached almost 100 feet.  The water surged out of the large hole in the ground and began to decrease in size after a steady five minutes of streaming water.  As we wearily made the drive back to the campsite we even spotted a juvenile moose on the side of the road.  The first day in Yellowstone turned out to be a great success and we even got to make smores for the first time that night.  As I made my way to bed I found myself eagerly waiting for the next day.  

Palisades Falls, Hyalite Canyon, MT

The kids among the geysers

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Finn testing his luck