This is the point in the trip where I don't want to blog. I'm exhausted. I want to go to bed. It's been a long day. But no, I have to write about my day. Forgive me if I don't embellish too much.
It was an early morning, with us out the door around 7:30 or so. The sun had just risen, not that you could see it through the fog. It made driving a little tricky as you could see even less than normal and would have no warning if an animal came into the road. Sure enough, we came around a bend to find a line of cars stopped dead and buffalo just roaming about the road. Again, people got stupidly close to get their pictures. Once the closest ones had crossed the road, we chanced it and snuck by.
 |
| No, that buffalo was not ramming the truck. |
Our first goal was to visit the Lower Geyser Basin and see the mud pots. Then we would hit the Mid Basin and finally Old Faithful. However, once we arrived we realized we couldn't see anything due to the fog. So we got back in the car and went down to Old Faithful first hoping that the fog would burn off on the drive down. We were able to see a little better but there was still quite a bit of fog. We got to the visitor center just in time to see the geyser erupting through the windows. Damn. The next eruption would be in 90 minutes. So we ate a little snack and went back later to see the full eruption and get pictures.
 |
| Ooooh! Water! |
 |
| Morning Glory. Look how clear it is! |
After the eruption, we took a walk to the Morning Glory Pool. This was one of the prismatic pools, hidden amongst the many geysers. On the way there, we saw another geyser eruption. The pool itself was really cool, so colorful and crystal clear. I can't believe how clear the water is here. On the way back we saw a third eruption. Once we were all geysered out we got in the car and went to the Mid Basin. Here was the one feature I really wanted to see, the Grand Prismatic pool. It's in all the pictures and souvenirs here. Sadly, once we got there it was not only bathed in steam, but you were on ground level with it, so you had no angle to see the colors of it.
 |
| Can you see the pool? Neither can I. |
Disappointed, we decided to head back to the Lower Basin to see some of the stuff that was hidden by the fog in the morning. This proved to be more fruitful as we were better able to see the mud pots and one of the prismatic pools. Having had our fill of geothermal goodness (and having walked 6 miles), we got in the car and went back to the room. A beer greatly helped to ease my aching feet. Now I'm back in the room and ready to snooze. A side note from today: There are about 10 thousand Chinese tourists here now. They're all on big bus tours and invade the sites with their selfie sticks and terrible clothing. Today one girl kept repeating what sounded like "New-SKI!" which apparently means "Cheese" in Chinese. We decided that if we got separated, that would be our code word to find each other. But there was another incident which angered me greatly. We were at the Lower Basin and there are ample boardwalks all over the place. Just follow it and you'll see what you need to see. On top of that, there are a million signs telling you to not step off the boardwalk, lest you fall through the thin top layer and scald yourself. Well this one woman, in her quest to get the ultimate selfie, stepped off the boardwalk and into the geothermal area to place her tripod. We stopped and said something to her, but she just laughed, clearly not understanding us. It just bugged me. What is so damn important about a picture of yourself? It was stupid, dangerous, and most of all disrespectful to the park. It's like they don't even care about the park, it's just something to check off of some list they have of things to see. It really bothers me.
No comments:
Post a Comment