Long day in Yellowstone

Sunrise over the Upper
Geyser Basin

August 7 – The alarm went off at 5, but we didn’t receive a wake up knock from the front
desk as we had requested so good thing the clock worked.  It didn’t seem cold at all and we had left the window open all night.  We quickly dressed and packed up.  I made a cup of coffee with the Keurig they brought up for me last night.  We found out the tour gives you a juice and muffin but we didn’t know if that was before or during our tour.

We took our belongings out to the car and claimed a seat in the lobby where we were told to congregate.  I turned in our keys to room 246.  It was super quiet and peaceful at 5:30 in the morning as opposed to last night.  It was colder out than we expected but the instructions said to dress warm in layers.  We both did but I sure wish I’d brought gloves. 

Bobby Socks Trees

Betty, our driver and guide met our group of 8 in the lobby and went over the plan for the morning, collected our tickets and told us we’d stop later and she’d serve muffins and juice.  By then it was 6AM and she told us 2 locations in the hotel where we could get coffee or other breakfast items and asked us to use the restroom before boarding.

We left in our 1937 almost original touring car at about 6:15.  The

Bill with our touring car

car was part of the original fleet of 98.  It had 4 doors on the passenger side.  Three opened for the bench seats that we were on and one for a passenger by the driver.  About half of the car was original.  This is what Bill specifically wanted to go in and it was a great experience.  Betty told us all about the progression for tourists from stagecoaches to cars to touring cars to buses and back to a combination of all.

Black Sand Basin

The tour is billed as a Photography Tour of Wildlife and Geysers but she told us right away that there would be little if any wildlife this time of year in this part of the park.  The concentration was on learning the best way to use the morning light and photographing the geysers and other things.  She has quite a bit of training and experience with photography and showed us a portfolio of some of her photos taken in the park.  This is her 6^th year of doing the tours there and she’s a single full timer Rver.   Her husband died a few years ago and she got a smaller RV and has kept on going.

Sunrise over Black Sand Basin

I tried really hard to learn what she told us but I don’t think much of it set in.  She checked what kinds of cameras we all had and showed us how to use aperture and the other settings but I needed a guide sheet.  I get the idea but it’s a lot to take in at one time in so many different settings.   I did get a few nice shots but I have a long way to go.

One of my best shots over Black
Sand Basin is sepia

We started at Black Sand Basin where we learned the dead trees with the wide white rings around the bottoms are called “Bobby Socks” trees because they look like they’re wearing bobby socks.  They were lodgepole pines then when too much water was in the area the chemicals in the geysers overflows killed them and the minerals collected around the bottoms. 

Upward view of lodgepole pines

Next we took the one way Firehole Lake Drive.  That was a very interesting stop.  Right along the road the flow from Great Fountain Geyser drained and over time formed a crust and in the crust is a bison footprint.  There are other spots

Bison print

that stupid humans have punched in or otherwise disturbed.  We were lucky to be there when the geyser erupted.  It’s also an area where pretty purple flowers grow and we were supposed to get a close up with the flower sharp and the background blurred but I didn’t quite get it.

Further around the loop was Great Fountain Geyser and

The dreaded flowers I didn't
do properly

just as we pulled up it was erupting and I was the first one out of the car and took a whole series of photos of it and at the same time the young girl with the expensive camera tripped over the concrete walkway and was crying and everyone was gathering around her.  No one else got any shots.  The girl was fine, she was more worried about her camera and we found out she fell yesterday somewhere also.  Betty thought it was a good time to break and have a muffin and juice so we did.

The geyser that creates
the flow for where the
bison stepped

When we got back in the car I checked my photos to show Bill and my settings were still on something for those darn flowers and every one of them was white!  I guess I was being punished for not stopping to check on the girl but her parents and brother were there and the guide so what could I do.  Drats!  Bill said we can go back but with our luck it won’t be at eruption time with no one else around like today.  Bummer!

Time for a bathroom break so we went to Madison Junction because the bathrooms are heated and not vault toilets.  It was starting to warm up a little bit but up to now it was cold outside and several of the passengers were using blankets in the car like in the old days when the cars had no heat.  It really didn’t seem like they had any heat today either.

The family of 4 needed to be back on time to leave for a rafting trip down in the Tetons so

Kepler Falls

we headed back.  I thought it was kinda early since it was only 10 and our time back was supposed to be 11.  Once we got back

Grand Geyser in Upper
Basin when we got back

Betty realized it was only after 10 not 11 so she took the 4 of us back out to Kepler Falls.  Our photo task was to try and take a photo stopping the water.  Yeah, right!  Betty said it was probably too bright out for a good shot so we did the best we could.  The falls were nice, long and skinny.

Time to get back to Old Faithful Inn and leave Betty and our touring car.  Upon arriving at the Inn, Old Faithful was going off again.  Unfortunately, the best shots I took were again on the wrong setting and they were all white, so I snapped a couple at the end as it was subsiding.  Oh well!

With our touring car

Since we had a good parking space we decided to check out the shops there and then we decided to have lunch at the “soda shop” style counter in one of the shops.  We knew there wouldn’t be any other places to stop on our way out.  It was OK, but nothing to write home about.  We did chat with a couple of the workers.  It’s interesting to see where they all come from.  One girl was from Thailand and she seemed thrilled that anyone would take an interest in her and how she landed there. 

Way too close

By now it was after 1 and we were both tired so we didn’t plan to stop anywhere until West Yellowstone.  However, once we were near Madison Junction there was a large herd of elk and lots of stopped cars.  At least here there was a long pull off so we didn’t jam up traffic.  One guy kept getting closer and closer to a female elk and she kept backing up.  We waited and watched to see if she’d charge him and it would serve him right!  She restrained herself, darn!

In West Yellowstone we stopped for a few staples and looked in more shops but nothing of interest so we headed home.  Once we unloaded the car and put things away we were ready to just chill.  Luckily there were leftovers for dinner!  Back to work tomorrow!