Old Faithful, Yellowstone - Day 1

Leaving Cody Wyoming on Rt 20 we made our way west. Adios cowboy country and hello mountain man terrain. We drove through a big gap in that continental vertical wall we call the Rocky Mountains and entered an alpine world leaving the great plains and arid prairies behind. Further on Buffalo Bill made his legendary presence known to us once again as we passed by his hunting camp. I had to stop in for a quick tour.

















Buffalo Bill Cody's hunting lodge. The Sioux called it Pahaska Tepee, "Longhair's Lodge".

Further on we continued through tight forested valleys and over rushing streams. In the distance smoke plumes billowed and tilted in the calm wind while bands of US Forest Service fire rangers watched and monitored their leanings . Rt. 20 follows the North Fork of the Shoshone River through the scenic Wapiti Valley to the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. It's 56 miles from Cody to the East Entrance and before we knew it we were entering the park. With the sun at our back we drove through Sylvan Pass and entered a high plateau. This wasn't a high desert or prairie but a a giant lodgepole pine wooded valley surrounded by distant mountains. And upon further, discovery Yellowstone National Park turns out to be a giant ancient caldera!















The caldera measures about 34 mi by 45 mi. Geologists refer to it as the Yellowstone Supervolcano!The most recent lava flow occurred about 70,000 years ago. The last full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano happened about 640,000 years ago. Currently, volcanic activity is exhibited only via numerous geothermal vents scattered throughout the region, including the famous Old Faithful Geyser. And that's where we're headed now .... although it's a little unsettling to know we could be blasted to bits by a geologic time bomb!

As we continued towards Old Faithful, Yellowstone Lake appeared on our left. I didn't realize it was so big. 136 square miles. At Fishing Bridge we got out of the car. Fishing Bridge spans the Yellowstone River where it drains Yellowstone Lake. If there is a prettier river in the entire world I haven't seen it. The crystal clear fast moving water reflected the blue of the sky and cast off shimmers and sparkles beckoning us down to the river's edge where we drank from the cool mountain run off. It was so clear you could see the rocks and bowing vegetation on the river bed. I desperately wanted to jump in but swimming was forbidden here and we had to keep rolling.

By the tip of the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake we turned directly west for another ten miles where we eventually drove up to the majestic Old Faithful Inn.















































The lodge is a spectacular log and limb building with a stunningly massive (500-ton, 85-foot) stone fireplace in the middle of it. The inn is a prime example of the "Golden Age" of rustic resort architecture, a style which is also known as National Park Service Rustic. Initial construction was carried out over the winter of 1903-1904, largely using locally-obtained materials including lodgepole pine (the bark was later removed in 1940) and rhyolite stone. When the Old Faithful Inn first opened in the spring of 1904, it boasted electric lights and steam heat. The structure is the largest log hotel in the world; possibly even the largest log building in the world.

Molly took a tour of the lodge and was told the Old Faithful Inn originated the concept of Rustic Architecture. The tour guide obviously didn't know who she was talking to as Ms. New York State informed the tour guide that the Rustic Style appeared in the Adirondack Mountains in the 1870s, creating the style known as Adirondack Architecture and that this was the primary influence that park architecture modeled itself after the year 1900. ....that's right. You don't mess with the Great Camps. :) OK back to Yellowstone.




















Main Lobby














Massive Fireplace



















Second Floor lobby. To the left outside is the front deck.



















Interior Hallway




Across from the Inn is Upper Guyser Basin. There are boardwalk paths through the guyser & mudpot fields. You MUST stay on the boardwalk. You definitely do not want to fall though the crusty earth anywhere into boiling water or mud!










































































There's one thing I gotta tell ya. It's a big secret they don't tell you about Yellowstone. It smells like rotten eggs. Yup. Rotten eggs. It can stink to high heaven sometimes. The geothermal areas reek of sulfur! It smells like the time my mother left eggs on the stove to boil and promptly fell asleep leaving the eggs to burn, fume and permeate everything in our house with that stinky rotten egg smell. Yuck. Still, you gotta go. It's one of the rare places on earth we can see the firey heart of mother earth manifest itself on the surface. Here's a video narrated by Drew as he tours the guyser fields.




Dylan & I went to watch Old Faithful go off. It was just he & I ...and about 1,000 tourists from all over the world. They show up in big buses, get out, watch the explosion, go to the gift shop and leave. :)























As the shadows stared to grow longer and the sky blended to yellow and orange in the west we headed to the front deck of the Inn. It's a second story deck, open to the sky, that overlooks Old Faithful. It was very relaxing. The air was clear & crisp. We drank Bayern and Moose Drool beer and met a group of about 10 Brits that I thought were Kiwi's. Interesting accents they had. They were riding motorcycles from Alaska to Nashville. "That's amazing" I said and asked how they could rent motorcycles in Alaska and drop them off down south. They said they didn't rent. It was cheaper to ship their own motorcycles to Alaska! That blew my mind. Of course the British Pound was worth 60 % more than the dollar in the summer of '08 so their money went a looong way.

Here we are on that luxurious porch.



Eventually we turned in. I can't remember why but we all got to laughing so hard in our room that we got in trouble from our neighbor. He banged on the door like he was trying to put his fist through it. I open it and he yelled at us. I blame Molly's cackle. We laughed a bit more at being yelled at and went to sleep. The goal was to be up at 5:30 AM the next morning to hunt for wildlife.

Would we see Bears, Elk, Buffalo? Click here to find out. Day 2 - looking for animals.