It was a gorgeous morning, probably in the high 50’s when we started out for the park around 9 am. The park’s west entrance station was about 4 blocks east of our campsite, so we were there in less than a minute, showed our pass, and without further adieu we were off. We determined that getting to Ole Faithful early was the smartest move, hopefully prior to the hoards of buses I was anticipating. That was a good call as when we left there close to noon, the parking lot was full and there were hundreds of cars cruising the lots looking for a spot.
When we arrived, we parked close to the lodge and hiked over quickly to see the geyser as we had no idea when it was going off, only that currently it was going off every 90 minutes or so. As we were walking over, it blew; so the first pic is from the parking lot and I am running over there. 
It was probably halfway done by the time I cleared the trees. Once it was over, we started walking around, checked out the lodge where I picked up a nice Yosemite pint glass. Now I have to figure out where to get my growler filled… oh, the problems we create!
The lodge was nice. I took a picture of the fireplace in the main hall. It was very big, not the size of the ones in the Ahwahnee at Yosemite, but still very nice.
We headed over to the visitor center which was full of exhibits. One of them was showing how the caldera changed during each of the last few eruptions, 2.1 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago and 640 thousand years ago. Hmm, that’s a disturbing pattern. Hopefully it doesn’t go off before you get to visit!
I had stalled long enough to where the geyser was supposed to go off in about 10 minutes. We headed back there. The crowd was enormous. Of course it was late, and I think it blew about 10 minutes later than the signs had indicated. 
But it was a great eruption and had a pleasing effect on the crowd.
Then we were off to West Thumb. I had no idea what that was when I saw it on the map, but it was a long way away and we wanted to get far away from the crowds. Turns out it was a small bay on Lake Yellowstone. I hadn’t even realized there was a lake in Yellowstone, and it’s huge. I mean really huge. 
What makes it more amazing is it’s close to 8,000 feet in elevation and a beautiful blue. 
And right in the parking lot there was a small mud pot with a small wooden fence around it.
We headed just a bit further to Grant Village. Lots of things to do there, mainly real bathrooms for Kathy. [Very important!]
Our plan was to hit all the sites we bypassed on the way to O’F on the way back. There were some spectacular sights to see. Some amazing colored pools and smaller geysers that were terrific as you could get very close to them. There were lots of small holes in the ground with bubbling water that would go unnoticed except for the sounds they were making.
Years ago I had been to a Mauri village on New Zealand that was smack dab in the middle of a similar volcanic area, but there, the sulfur smell was 100 times worse than here. That struck me as odd. There was very little rotten egg smell at any of the sites we visited today.
On the way to and from the Thumb, we crossed the Continental Divide twice in each direction. I never realized Yellowstone was in the Rockies.
We stopped at a turnoff to have a picnic lunch and Kathy asked if there were bears. I expect there are, although we didn’t see any this day. I was wondering if the rangers had to move these spots to keep the bears away, although they looked fairly permanent to me. One thing I noticed in this park, there are a dearth of signs. Easy to miss turnoffs as it seems if there is a sign, you only see it as you pass the turnoff. And the park map leaves off just enough info so reference points you do occasionally see a sign for are not listed on the map. At least according to my navigator…
Enjoy the pictures. The scenery in the park is just beautiful and changing around every corner!!
