This morning we load up and head out for Yellowstone National Park. No line, no trouble getting into the park at the South Entrance. We head north and the drive has been described as going through a lodgepole pine tunnel.

We stop at Grant Village which we expect to have a semi-busy visitor center and where we plan to get our national park passports stamped, only to find the visitor center closed for the season. We continue on to the West Thumb Junction, then head west and are on what is called the Grand Loop Road, still U.S. Route 191.

Our next stop is for a photo op where we cross the Continental Divide.

Venturing along we next stop at Kepler Cascades, a waterfall on the Firehole River.

Our next stop was at Old Faithful. We are lucky to get into the parking lot – lucky based on what we had been reading on a travel forum about parking there – and sit and wait with many others for the geyser eruption which was occurring about every 91 minutes, plus or minus ten minutes.

And it starts erupting about ten minutes early.

The geyser action lasts about three to four minutes. It shoots 4,000 to 8,000 gallons of water up about 180 feet. It’s not the tallest or the most frequent but the most reliable.

Old Faithful is one of about 500 geysers in the park and one of six for which park rangers are able to predict eruption times. These geysers are evidence of the volcanic activity that is taking place below Yellowstone. We look at a map that shows the area of the three major supereruptions or super-volcanic activity that took place in the park area starting two million years ago. The third one, the Lava Creek Eruption, occurring 640,000 years ago, was estimated to be 2,500 times as powerful as the latest Mount St. Helen’s eruption.

Another map shows the area of the Yellowstone Caldera or sunken area that has resulted from these eruptions and is the prime area for volcanic activity. Old Faithful is smack in the middle of this area.

We had packed a lunch so found a few logs to sit on near the geyser to eat while contemplating the nature of where we were.

After lunch, part of our group walked along the boardwalk at Upper Geyser Basin to check out the geothermal activity.

One of the many geysers in the area is Castle Geyser which has a huge cone, about twelve feet tall and three feet wide at the top. It may be the oldest geyser in the park and currently erupts about every 10-12 hours and each eruption lasts about 20 minutes.

Castle Geyser is here in the background but just below it and at the top of the sign is the rim of Tortoise Shell Spring which is constantly boiling and splashing up a few inches to a few feet.

Another geothermal feature is Heart Spring, so named because of its shape. It’s basically inactive with a temperature below boiling. In this photo the Lion group of four geysers is in the background. The Lion Geyser is called that because the steam it emits before erupting makes a roaring noise.

Finally there is the striking Morning Glory Pool. Unfortunately it was damaged by vandalism, people throwing trash in the pool, but has been restored. The damage, however, reduced the heat of the pool and caused it to lose its previous baby blue color. Thermophiles now thrive in the cooler water resulting in the orange and green colors.

So lots of interesting geysers with different characteristics. The walk through this area is highly recommended.

We leave Old Faithful and stop at the nearby General Store for souvenirs and ice cream.

Then we depart the Upper Geyser area and drive to Madison Junction and go out of the park through the West Entrance. This takes us into West Yellowstone, Montana where we have a house rented for the rest of the trip. We also stopped for groceries at one of the two local markets and that’s when we wished we had stocked up more at Albertsons in Jackson. But we manage and between both stores find the supplies we need. Dinner that night was pizza from the Wild West Pizzeria and Saloon, also highly recommended.