I’m finally posting things from Yellowstone! It’s only been eight months.. Give a girl a break, so much cool stuff has happened, it’s hard to decide what to share when. But now that it’s time, I’m excited. I have SO MANY pictures of Yellowstone that I’m breaking this up into a few posts. Today it’s Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin, which I thought was awesome.
This is the infamous Old Faithful. We got there just in time and had to wait no more that 20 minutes before she erupted. Being this late, we were kind of far away, but still had awesome views. If you just have a little time to waste, check out the Old Faithful Inn and gift shops.
After a short wait, it was time, she was erupting! And it was, uhh, cool? Ok, so it wasn’t the coolest thing, and I definitely wouldn’t go because of it, but I liked it. It was a lot quieter than I expected, like, almost silent, and lasted longer than I thought, too. It’s still totally worth seeing if you’re there, don’t get me wrong. I mean, come one, it’s Old Faithful.
After that, we set off around the Upper Geyser Basin, with cloudy skies threatening above. Chinese Spring was one of the first ones (above on the left) that we came to and probably spent 15 minutes by it because we were so excited to see these things. Neither of us had seen hot springs and geysers like this before.
We walked all the way around the boardwalk seeing springs and geysers of all shapes and sizes. We had no idea how long this walk was, but that was fine. We probably ended up spending and hour or two walking around and taking pictures. Some were erupting as we passed by, others we just missed. Some erupt only one or twice a day and either need planning to see, or just luck.
I would definitely recommend this. I don’t know if a lot of people skip this or not, but I figure since you went through all that effort for Old Faithful, you might as well see some other cool stuff. I don’t think anywhere was particularly smelly, but it was pretty warm leaning over some. I really loved all the colors, the steam, and seeing the buffalo prints in some of the springs.
Helpful Things:
- Old Faithful erupts roughly every 90 minutes. It’s a good starting point for the day, so try to time your arrival on that. Or, if you get there right after she erupted, wander around the Upper Geyser Basin until the next eruption.
- Give yourself time to find a place to park and walk to Old Faithful.
- If you want front row seats, get there early.
- During summer, it can get really hot, so bring water if you plan on walking around the basin.
- Stay on the boardwalk! They are there for a reason, you don’t want to get boiled or just disintegrate like this guy.
- Don’t try and go in the springs to relax or hot pot or whatever it’s called.
- If you have pets, be extremely careful with them. Keep them on the boardwalk, if they’re even allowed. I would leave them home if possible.
Have you been to Yellowstone? Did you see Old Faithful? What did you think? What was your favorite thing there?
