Day 29: Yellowstone National Park, WY

We all slept like babies and then cried like babies when we woke to close to 10cm of snow blanketing everything. While we seem to have returned to winter (which is not ideal), there is absolutely no doubt that it is beautiful here. 

After breaking out the toques and mittens, Lower Geyser Basin was our first stop of the day to see the hydrothermal fumaroles, hot springs, mudpots, and geysers. I think the blizzard kept the other visitors away; we had the boardwalk completely to ourselves. It was slippery on the snow covered plastic boardwalk but we loved seeing the colourful hot springs, especially the Morning Glory Spring. This particular spring has been the recipient of some significant clean up work over the years to remove coins, handkerchiefs and garbage that had clogged up the spring. It looks really beautiful now.

Morning glory spring.

We were incredibly lucky to happen across Rocket Geyser just as it erupted. This is not one of the reliably timed geysers so we were thrilled to be the only people around to witness its fizzing, sizzling, steaming and eventual 30 foot eruption. It was amazing.

Rocket geyser erupting.

We finished our hike in time to catch the 11:20am eruption of Old Faithful with the masses of other tourists who, by this time, had ventured out as the snow eased up. The boys were pretty damp by this point and the 15 minutes of sitting waiting for Old Faithful made them cold and grumpy. After the excitement of Rocket Geyser, they were unfortunately unimpressed with Old Faithful.

The anticipation…

Here we go!

Go Old Faithful!

After warming everyone up in the truck and feeding our hangry monsters, Ian and I were feeling up to visiting the Grand Prismatic Spring. Bribery might have been involved to get the boys on board (there is now hot chocolate in our future and I had to give up my mittens to Ali). We started at the Fairy Falls trailhead to hike to the Grand Prismatic Spring Scenic Overlook. It was an easy uphill with a great view of the spring and bacterial terraces.

Ali and Liam were not impressed enough to partake in the photo.

Next we joined the masses to walk around the Grand Prismatic Spring boardwalk. Ian and I remember the water being right up to the boardwalk the last time we visited here, which is no longer the case. Even so, we got some really excellent views and fabulous photos. The steam fogged up our glasses but didn’t smell too strong of sulphur, which was appreciated by all.

Steamy - can’t see!

All geysered out for today, we drove back to Fishing Bridge campground in another blizzard with temperatures still hovering right around the freezing point. We took hot showers and put on warm jammies, cranked the heat in the camper, made chicken soup in the instant pot, and brewed up mugs of hot chocolate. We are working on thawing out and warming up before bedtime. Here’s to hoping for a warm, sunny day tomorrow.