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Monday, January 29
I slept poorly last night – I seemed to wake up every hour on the half hour...
Breakfast was a buffet in the Lodge restaurant.
Eric helped put my Yak Trax on me. I can get the left one on, but the right leg
We watched Old Faithful go off, then walked around the upper basin most of the morning.
I saw a coyote loping across the grounds. It was a perfect photo op, but I was too slow – I needed to drop my tripod and reset the camera for faster speed. And there just wasn't time! So, I'll just describe it. As the coyote loped along one of the paved trails, it passed by a pool of clear water – crystal clear reflection as it passed by. Mental photo....
The photo on the left was our view of Old Faithful erupting. With all the clouds in the sky, it just wasn't much to write home about... The other two photos are of Castle Geyser.
I walked down to Castle Geyser. It wasn't ready to go off yet, so I continued around that loop a ways.
Just beyond Castle Geyser is a nice thermal pool called Crested Pool. That's the photo on the left.
The photo on the right is looking over Crested Pool back towards the lodging area across the valley.
The photo on the left shows the bridge over the Firehole River on this path. The center photo shows the Firehole River from the center of this bridge. The photo on the right shows some animal tracks in the snow leading towards one of the thermal pools.
I heard Castle Geyser start to erupt (I had been told it would go on for a while), so I hustled back to a viewpoint near it. That's the fastest I've moved in quite a while. My knee hurt for a while afterwards – I must have hyper extended it.
The photo on the left above and the center photo show two different views of Castle Geyser erupting. The eruption continued for quite a while! The photo on the right was taken on my trek back to the Lodge and shows Old Faithful erupting from a distance.
I continued back towards Lodge from there slowly.
Then I took another trail. Along the way, I helped Grover retrieve his lens shade (and his tripod) as he dropped first one, then the other on the far side of the railing.
Then I went back to the Lodge for a bathroom break and some tylenol...
Lunch was at noon in the Lodge restaurant. I had half BLT sandwich and side salad. Perfect.
After lunch, one of the bellmen helped me get my right Yak Trax on my boots. I had managed to get the left one on unaided.
I left the Lodge again about 1:30. This time, I went counter clockwise around Old Faithful, over the upper portion of the loop around Geyser Hill and on to where I had turned around this morning.
The photo on the left shows the Firehole River much farther upstream than the other photos of it. This view is near Old Faithful.
The photo on the right shows some of the colorful runoff from some of the thermal areas.
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The photo on the left is of Doublet Pool. I thought the sides of this pool were rather unique.
The photo on the right shows some animal tracks crossing in the snow.
This side of the loop through the valley is much snowier than the other. The photo on the left shows some of the snow and shadow patterns and trees on the side of the trail.
The photo on the right shows a small tree rebounding from its snow blanket.
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The photo on the left shows Spasmodic Geyser, a small geyser that seemed to pop off every few seconds with varying intensity. The center photo also shows Spasmodic Geyser with the snow covered walkway that passes by near it. The photo on the right shows Upper Geyser Basin with Crested Pool in the foreground. The clouds were better in this photo than the other one above...
Then I retraced my steps from this morning back to Lodge with a stop at the Visitor's Center.
The photo on the left shows the historic Old Faithful Inn from the trail. The benches are in front of Castle Geyser. The center photo shows the steam rising from Old Faithful (between eruptions) reflected in a pool of water at its base. The photo on the right shows some snow sliding off the roof of the Visitor's Center...
At the Visitor's Center, I stumped the Ranger on the identity of some tracks I had seen (I was too far away for a decent photo, so I had to try to describe them). He didn't know what they were. So, I looked through some of the books in the gift shop and decided it was probably a Bald Eagle. I watched a third eruption of Old Faithful from Visitor's Center.
Then I went back to my room for a shower and to download images.
Dinner was at 6:30 in the Lodge restaurant. I had the same thing as last night. The trout is still good. Tonight it was served with snap peas instead of broccoli. Better.
My foot hurts. My back hurts. My knees are not happy. My hip isn't too happy either. Between tylenol and my heating pad, however I got them under control.
Back to the room and I crashed again.