What a Wonder-filled World

July 22nd, 2017--Today we were leaving Canyon Village for another campground for the southern loop of Yellowstone. We left our campsite at 9:15pm and the guys drop Michelle and I off with the kids at the Visitor Center, Gift Shop, and Grocery while them dumped the tanks and refilled water. We didn't leave the campground until about 10:30am.

The kids knew that at some point today they were going to go swimming in a watering hole heated by springs. Each time we stopped they asked if *this* was where they could swim. Understandably, they weren't happy that we kept stopping at places that weren't a swimming hole. We stopped at Gibbon River, Beryl Geyser (above video and the hottest, at between 188 - 192 degrees), Gibbon Falls, and Terrace Springs.

We had lunch and then headed to Firehole Canyon Drive, where the swimming hole awaited us...except RVs were prohibited. This was not going to stop us from getting there. We parked down the road at an overlook and then trekked the kids down to the spring. It was packed and ripe for people watching :)

Surprisingly, the water wasn't nearly as heated as we had thought. But in relation to the other water in the area it was 75 degrees, which is warm for the 39 degree nights we'd been having! There were people swimming, cliff diving, and even a guy in scuba gear! Every place we visited had the clearest water--amazing.

Next up was the amazing Grand Prismatic Spring. WOW. I've seen pictures of the main spring at this site, but you have to see it to believe it. There were at least five springs here, varying in size and color. The blue parts are the deepest (and again, clearest), with rings of different types of algae surrounding it, showcasing the varying colors.

The colors for each spring were so vivid that it was hard to believe they occur naturally.

Stay on the boardwalk!

Chatting with a ranger at Canyon Village we learned that a new trail opened up that overlooks the Grand Prismatic. Our next stop was Fairy Falls where we didn't see a fairy or falls but we did a gorgeous view of the Grand Prismatic Spring.

If that weren't enough for one day, we were now headed for Old Faithful. As advertised, the geyser is fairly consistent and when we arrived we were told we had about an hour before it was set to go off. We went to the gift shop, had ice cream, and stopped in the Old Faithful Inn, which is amazing.

The Inn was designed to look like an old hunting lodge.

When Yellowstone allowed cars into the park the White Motor Co. in Cleveland made 96 of these touring cars. They were painted yellow like the original stagecoaches that took people from Roosevelt Arch through the park. Nine are left and were made with convertible roll back tops you can a 360 degree view!

Kevin picked out a spot for us to watch the geyser go off and it was perfect. The wind was blowing to the right of us so we wouldn't get drenched!

After a couple of false starts Old Faithful, which was predicted to go off at 6:47pm went off closer to 6:57pm and lasted for a few minutes. It was amazing to witness this event with so many people oohing and awwing along with us from all over the world.

Afterward to stopped in at the Visitor Center and then decided that it made more sense to tailgate in the parking lot for dinner rather drive to our next campsite. Again, didn't plan it but turned out great! Kevin and I made up meatball subs (a big hit, Grandma Roebel!) with salad, chips, slaw, and beans. Mark and Michelle supervised the kids playing in the woods on the edge of the parking lot. They got trunks of fallen trees and put them in between two close-growing trees to make a teeter-totter. They had a blast! When we finally sat down at the picnic table for dinner Old Faithful went off again! It was such a sight to see the water gushing skyward--much taller and for a longer time than the first--with the setting sun reflecting on it. (Guess we were having too much fun at our tailgate--I can't find any pictures from the park, the lot, or the second eruption!)

After a busy day we weren't prepared for the drive ahead of us to Bridge Bay campground. We were all exhausted and still had an hour to go before we reached our site. We joked that it would have been a better idea to camp out in the Old Faithful parking lot than drive all the way, an idea we later found out was illegal. The kids were all asleep when we pulled in, but the campground itself was bustling. There were probably ten workers checking in people. It must be common for families to fill the day with sight-seeing before getting to the campground because the line were long to get in before the 10pm shutting down of the office. We set up camp quickly and went straight to bed.