Yellowstone Part One

I arrived here in West Yellowstone on Sunday afternoon (it is now Friday) It was raining cool and windy, but with better weather forecast for the rest of the week.
My (excellent) host Renee was cooking ribs and had invited some of the other folks from the campground over for supper. Renee had another guest Beth Wagner. All three of us had worked together at Caterpillar in Clayton NC and then gone our separate ways. I will create a special post about Renee and my admiration for her lifestyle and choices.
Beth had been here for a few days and was due to leave for Bozeman on Monday evening for an early Tuesday flight. 
We decided to go into Yellowstone on Monday to see the geysers and of course the most famous one, Old Faithful. I have to admit that I have done little planning for this whole trip but particularly for this portion. Renee has been here since late May and has spent many days in the park so knows it well and also the best time of day for visits. 
It was quite foggy when we got up and the campground is right by a lake. I took a couple of photos that have the peaks of some of the mountains peaking out. Renee claims they are HER mountains so I will call them the Renee Range. I could hear a coyote on the other side of the lake, but could not see him or her through the mist. Rather cool! 
I have also posted a picture of the same range after the fog had cleared so you can see the magnificent view on a clear day. Superb.

Renee's Place

We left for the geysers early Monday morning and traffic was light. The only hold up was a "parade" which is when all the cars stop (sometimes in the middle of the road) to look at animals.
We experienced this within the first hour although there were few cars.

I have never seen a bison (live) so this was an interesting experience all the more so for a close up experience. Park rules do not allow you to get closer than 75 ft from animals other than bears and wolves, and then it is 300 ft. Plenty close if you ask me.

We arrived around 8.45 at the geyser field and Renee checked the estimated times for the various geysers to blow so we could begin to plan a route. There are about 150 geysers and they are spread out over about one square mile. All are well signed and some are certainly more spectacular than others. It was a partly cloudy day and quite cold when the wind blew and the sun was behind the clouds. 
We first went to Daisy Geyser as it was the first to erupt and she did so right on time. As you can see below it is difficult to photo the geyser against a white cloud background!

GOCA hat sighting

Renee and Beth at Daisy Geyser 

We spent the next few hours wandering around some of the other geysers and saw Old Faithful erupt from the lodge near by. It seems to have the most regular and predictable eruptions but is actually not as spectacular as Grand Geyser. The challenge with Grand is that they give you a 4 hour window of when they predict it will erupt, but the eruptions last between 7 and 12 minutes and are worth the wait. There are people who are Geyser Gazers and spend a LOT of time looking at them or waiting for them to erupt. The older ones are actually known as Geyser Gazer Geezers!!  

 We got back around 7pm after a full day and Beth still had to drive to Bozeman. Plans are for a short day tomorrow with a trip to Earthquake Lake!!