Day 4

This morning we awoke half-frozen at our Lewis Lake campsite (Eleven spent a little time un-numbing an appendage or two), but ready to experience Yellowstone. Fractional cooked pancakes and we packed up our campsite and moved to the Grant Village campground.

The first Yellowstone attraction we saw were the Mud Volcanos. The sulphur smell is whelming at first, but we were able to endure it enough to spend about 45 minutes looking at the bubbling, steaming pools of mud and water escaping the Earth's crust. Some of the pools are well in excess of 180 degrees Fahrenheit. We did not attempt to verify this first-hand.

On the way to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, we ran into a herd of buffalo. Despite the very real threat of goring, Fractional ventured toward the beasts for some pictures. The buffalo didn't seem to care that they were blocking traffic, but leisurely strolled across the road, thus answering the eternal question, "Why did the buffalo cross the road?" The grass was greener there.

The next stop was the aforementioned canyon. The pictures we took cannot do justice to the color and majesty of the canyon walls. At one end of the canyon is the 308 foot Upper Falls. This is twice the height of Niagara, and even viewing the falls from a distance was an awe-inspiring sight.

After the canyon, we journeyed on to the Norris Geyser Basin. Steamboat Geyser failed to leave the port, per se, and has not had a major eruption since April. Since we didn't want to wait to see one, we went on a mile hike through the basin to see many smaller geysers, pools, and mud pots. Some of the pools are colored by minerals and bacteria which thrive in the steaming water. The array of colors inspires us to over-use big words.

Then we slipped on down to "Old Erupts-Whenever-It-Wants-To", a.k.a., Old Faithful. We arrived just as an eruption was ending, so we had to wait a little over an hour for another one. Old Faithful was 20 minutes late. But we awoke to a very impressive eruption.

After a long day, we came back to our campsite and built a fire. We ate a well-earned supper of chicken and rice. Then we roasted marshmallows and turned in for the night.

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