Trip Journal: Yellowstone National Park (Day 1)
Today was our first full day at Yellowstone, having arrived at our hotel in Gardiner, Montana after dinner last night. We let the kids sleep in a little (nothing more wearing than a long day or driving), then set out to see the sights. The goal for the first day: get at least as far as Old Faithful.
The view from the hotel is spectacular, being right on the banks of the Yellowstone River. And I truly mean on the banks: our room is perched on the hill just above the river, and there's nothing between us and the raging water except some weeds and a wooden railing. The window in our room looks out over the river blow, and snow-capped mountains above.
We left the hotel room about 9 AM, and went in search of someplace for breakfast. We settled on a local cafe, which was probably a mistake. The food was good, but it took over an hour to get breakfast. The service was sloooooow. The kids were getting squirrely by the time the food arrived, despite several rounds of "I Spy" with Scooter. After breakfast (about 10:30 AM), we drove the one block to the North Entrance of Yellowstone, and the adventure was on.
Mammoth Hot Springs: Our first stop was Mammoth Hot Springs, which is just inside the North Entrance. We hiked all the way from the lower parking area to the overlook at the top of the hot terraces (not realizing that it was possible to park at the top)--a roughly two-mile hike which climbed over 300 feet vertically. Even the twins made the climb without complaint, which I think is remarkable for three-year-olds.
Norris Geyser Basin: A short drive took us to Norris Geyser Basin, where we arrived at around 12:30, figuring that this might be a good place for lunch and some geysers. This is the home of the largest geyser in the world, Steamboat Geyser, which can erupt as high as 300 feet, but can go up to 50 years between major eruptions. The last major eruption was about a month ago, and we were not so lucky to see one today. We walked about 1 1/2 miles around Norris, stopping frequently to watch interesting stuff, and saw some small geysers (up to a few feet high) erupt many times, but not big eruptions here.
Our biggest excitement came when one of the twins fell off the elevated viewing platform above the Echinus geyser. We think he was trying to chase a pebble he dropped, but he slipped and fell about three feet to the ground below. Nothing was hurt other than his pride, however Scooter completely freaked out. We had done such a good job of explaining the dangers of the thermal areas that Scooter was honestly scared that his brother was going to die. A quick hoist back onto the path, and all was well. We also got rather sunburnt, and left Norris around 3:00 headed for Old Faithful.
Old Faithful: It is only about 30 miles from Norris to Old Faithful, but we got caught behind a very slow delivery truck ("Bob's Serves You Better!") and a whole series of wildlife-related traffic jams. We did not reach Old Faithful until 4:30, just as an eruption was going off. Since Old Faithful goes about an hour and a half between eruptions, we decided to have an early dinner, catch the next eruption, then head back to the hotel.
I had not been to Yellowstone since I was about ten years old, and the Old Faithful area is much different than I remember. It has become a sort of hydrothermal Disneyland, filled with hotels, gift shops, restaurants, though thankfully no walking furry geysers to pose for pictures with the kids (yet). Even today, early in the season, the crowds were significant, though we could see that everything had been built for between three and five times the number of people as were present today.
But we saw our eruption, and Scooter scolded several other tourists for stepping off the boardwalk to get their pictures taken with the geyser. We had to explain to him--once again--that it is not his job to enforce the rules. Some of the recipients of Scooter's scolding didn't take kindly to being harangued by a six-year-old, and were very much jerks about it.
The 55-mile drive back to our hotel didn't take nearly as long as the drive to Old Faithful, mostly because we didn't get stuck in as much traffic. We left Old Faithful at about 6:15, and got to the hotel by 7:45 or so. However, the twins slept on the drive, and were extremely wound up at bedtime. We finally took them on drive to settle them down, and got them to bed around 10 PM.
Plan for tomorrow: Unsettled, but we certainly not going back to the Slow Cafe for breakfast. Scooter really wants to go swimming, and he was extremely responsible and well behaved all day, so he deserves a treat. She Who Puts Up With Me wants to go whitewater rafting, in which case Scooter will join her, and I'll do something else with the twins, as they are too young for the rafting trip.