Ski underwear for the win. No freezing this night. Got up well-rested around 7:30.
We started the day with a vegan™ porridge for breakfast.
After sorting our stuff for the day, we did the dishes and drove to the shower building. Feeling human again, I finished writing yesterday’s blog entry while Marius used the opportunity for his hair-care – a problem I don’t have.
The first part of driving brought us further north through Grand Teton National Park along the shore of Jackson Lake.
We entered Yellowstone on the South Entrance Road using our annual pass that grants us access to all National Parks in the country.
Lewis Falls at the Lewis River coming from Lewis Lake was our first stop. I wonder who this Lewis was.
We continued our drive to the Grant Village Visitor Center, where we collected information on possible hikes, available camp sites, as well as Geyser eruption forecasts. It is always a good idea to ask the rangers at the visitor centers for recommendations, they really do know their parks.
At 12:30 there already were only two campgrounds with available spots left in whole Yellowstone. One being Bridge Bay, the other one at Lewis Lake which we just passed. We quickly went to the camp reception at Grant Village to make a reservation for the Bridge Bay campground. Otherwise we would have definitely run into trouble finding a spot in the evening.
Having taken care of accommodation, we started our tour around the appropriately named Grand Loop Road in a clockwise direction. First target: the famous Old Faithful Geyser. The next eruption was predicted for 14:42. They happen every 70 to 110 minutes and can be predicted with an accuracy of 10 minutes.
We assumed position on the tribune surrounding half the opening with a safe distance. Old Faithful didn’t disappoint. After tense minutes of waiting, a fountain of water and steam burst into the air for maybe 2 to 3 minutes until the Geyser would return to its less spectacular steam production. The crowd was happy, some weirdly applauded.
With Old Faithful being the most famous Geyser in the Park, there is a huge tourist infrastructure around it, almost a village, with some impressive wooden architecture.
There was a whole area of hot springs, pools and other Geyser around, accessible via wooden walks. It was a surreal piece of landscape to watch, and a smell of sulphur was in the air.
Castle Geyser is another rather impressive and very active geyser in this area.
Following the recommendations of my seat neighbour from the flight to Salt Lake City, we chose Black Sand Basin for our next stop. It is a group of larger, colourful pools and some Geysers as well.
Grand Prismatic Spring from Marius’ list was next. It is that natural pool with its rainbow colours you’ll find immediately when looking for images of Yellowstone. However, with colder air temperatures and all the steam coming up it is not as visible, and reality falls a bit behind the expectations set by postcard motives.
From next to the spring we could see a group of people on a nearby hill. They must have had a view. We checked the map and saw there’s a trail next to the Firehole River leading to that viewpoint. If it wouldn’t have been past 17:00 already and the weather a bit sunnier, we probably would have turned the car around and headed south to the trail head. But instead, we decided to continue our scenic ride north up to Norris, then west to Canyon village and finally south to Bridge Bay where we had reserved our spot for tonight.
We stopped along some interesting sights along the way and enjoyed the breathtaking views of Hayden Valley as the evening sun set in.
Of course there was some wildlife, too.
When we arrived at Bridge Bay around 20:15, a sign indicated the camp ground was full. Good thing we made that reservation.
The evening was colder than the days before, we are getting a bit worried about the weather up north and whether our clothing will be appropriate.
We had pasta with a garlic onion tomato sauce for dinner. Our camper van life is getting routine, and we become more time efficient every day. If there would be any kind of internet connection, I could have uploaded this post before going to sleep. So my apologies for the late update.