Yellowstone (Part Three)

On the eve of our last day at Yellowstone, Jon went out to look at the stars one final time. They were as bright as ever!

On Thursday, July 3, Jon got up early in the morning again. It was Katherine's turn to go with him this time, but she opted to stay in bed. (She's the sleepyhead in the family now!) He walked down to the Old Faithful Geyser, but the Visitor Center was still closed and there was no prediction posted for the morning yet. After waiting a short while, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, Old Faithful began acting up, so Jon videotaped this eruption from start to finish (NOT the video below.) Very few people were at the geyser at this hour. This was the fifth time he saw it erupt on this trip.

After that, Jon did 2 loads of laundry. Yes, you read that correctly. Of course, all our whites turned pink, but, hey, you can't have everything! Debbie was busy packing and making sure we had all of our stuff ready to load up in the van. We checked out by 10 a.m. and hit the road for our farewell tour of Yellowstone. Here is what our cabin looked like from the outside (except we weren't always standing right in front of it!)

We started off by driving up the road a few miles to see the Grand Prismatic Spring in the Midway Geyser Basin.

We had been hoping to have a chance to see this one and finally got the opportunity. It's called "prismatic" because of the variety of colors. Living micro-organisms called thermophiles (because they love the heat) are what gives the hot springs their vibrant colors. Blue is the hottest, and you see that in the center of many springs. Then the other colors such as yellow and orange are the organisms that like it a little cooler. Those colors tend to be around the edges.

After the Midway Geyser Basin, we drove to Biscuit Basin and saw several more geysers that put on a good show for us.

Then we drove to Black Sands Basin and yes, you guessed it, saw several more geysers. These geysers are all located within several miles of each other to show you what an active area it is!

And good news: in the parking lot, Jon spotted the Rhode Island license plate - that just leaves Hawaii!

And about Bethany Lewis - we heard later from Tal that she is recovering well and there is no permanent damage to her arm, but it sure was scary for awhile.

We returned to the Old Faithful complex to eat a really good and reasonably priced lunch at the Geyser Grill in the Snow Lodge. Then we walked one of the shorter geyser boardwalk loops right near Old Faithful called "Geyser Hill." Daniel made some crack about it being "Geezer Hill" due to my advanced age. (I think he's still sore about being thrown in the creek!)

We witnessed Old Faithful erupting one last time among a great throng of people around 1:30. We quickly left the area and were determined to leave the Park, but our resolve weakened and we stopped one last time to see the Kepler Cascades.

We did pull off periodically to look at mountains and lakes, but we stayed in the van. We saw an incredible potpourri of waterfalls (some nice-sized, some small, some just a trickle) on the way to the east entrance. We finally took our family picture at a Yellowstone National Park sign as we were leaving at the East Entrance.

We continued heading east through some beautiful country with very interesting-looking rocks and canyons on the way to Cody. Teddy Roosevelt reportedly said this was one of the most scenic areas of the country.

We saw the impressive Cody Dam and went through 3 tunnels before arriving in Cody.

We checked into a very decent room at the Rainbow Park Motel. We drove to the Rodeo Arena and got our tickets for the special "Stampede Rodeo" that evening. Fortunately, the tickets were reserved so we didn't have to worry about arriving early to get good seats.

We ate dinner back in our motel room that we had bought from KFC and Burger King.

Then we went to the Rodeo! Now, this wasn't MY first time at a rodeo, but it was for my family! We tried to get Debbie up on this bull for a picture, but she said, "No way!"

As it was July 3, there was a lot of patriotic elements to the show.

The reviews on the rodeo were mixed. Daniel loved it, especially the bull-riding. Bethany and Katherine enjoyed seeing all the horses and the cowgirls' barrel-racing event. Debbie was prety much horrified and appalled as people were continually getting hurt. I told Daniel to tell her later that evening that he wanted to grow up to be a cowboy in the rodeo, but she wasn't buying it.

We came back to our motel and pretty much collapsed in bed once again from a very full day!

Here are some video shots, if you can get them to work, of a snowball fight, Old Faithful Geyser, and Grotto Geyser. I have one more to add later of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone, but for right now the blog isn't letting me upload it, so I'll try again tomorrow!