John Colter Trail 1807 — 1808

Day 30: September 12th, 2005 Old Faithful — Canyon Village

88 S10 Blazer, Snowlodge Cabin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

In the morning I already pack together all my stuff in order to be able to check out immediately. At the moment it is still raining — that’s really great to load up my little truck. Then I drive over for breakfast and park on this big parking lot. This time I have no waiting and receive my table immediately.

Around a quarter to ten I pay and check out. Then I walk over to my car in light rain and try to figure out where Old Faithful is located. It seems that I am already pretty close. Anyways, due to the bad weather I drive this short distance. Then I leave my car and take a look around first. It seems that I have got the almost perfect parking spot here directly at the Visitor Center. And also the rain starts to slow down. Therefore I take my camera and tripod immediately with me.

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, WY

It is almost impossible to miss the place of Old Faithful here. There is seating all around the place and a giant boardwalk was built to be able to take all the crowds. On a panel you can see, when the next eruption will be. Thus I still have a bit more than half an hour time, which I use to walk around the place and take some pictures of the surrounding landscape. Whereas the light rain and the clouds don’t really picture the landscape.

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Then I pick a spot for my recording and wait patiently until the show starts. But unfortunately the spot, where the landscape looks best in the background, lies directly in the direction where all the steam is going to. Therefore I am not really able to catch a lot of the geyser on my video tape. A lusty elderly woman gives me the advice to wait for another eruption and go a bit more to the left. She was also at the very same spot this morning and also only captured steam on her pictures. The only issue for me is, that I will have to wait for another hour…

But I am killing this time in the Visitor Center. There are two movies to watch and in between I check out the book store. I also use this opportunity to buy my last post cards, to have eventually one card for everyone back home.

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Pretty soon the time has come for the next eruption. My fully charged spare battery for the camera is still in my pocket to keep it warm. It is really cold and the Li–Ion batteries loose a lot of capacity, when it is cold. When the eruption slowly starts, I change the battery and this time, it has the full capacity. And in the new position I am also able to capture the geyser quite reasonably on my video tape — as far as it is possible with this kind of weather.

After this now successful recording I walk back to my car. While walking I think to myself, what do all the people like at this geyser. The one yesterday was way more impressive. The only honorable thing is the reliability of an eruption every 60 to 90 minutes.

Kepler Cascades, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Then I depart. Rain and snow change while driving. But slowly it starts to clear up and so I am able to get some really nice shots of the surrounding mountains at the horizon. A couple of days ago, there was not a single snowflake!

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Continental Divide, Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Because it is still extremely cold, I only make short stops.

West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

This gives me now enough time to visit the West Thumb Geyser Basin. There are also mainly hot and steaming springs, which look really impressive with these temperatures. Only the slowly starting snow rain stops my video taping. Just in time I am back at my car, before two buses spit out their whole load.

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Then I continue on roads along the lake shore. As I am still good in time, I also take the short and smaller roads in parallel to Grand Loop Road, in order to be closer to the shore. This gives me again plenty of opportunities for great pictures of the lake and the surrounding mountains.

LeHardys Rapids, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Finally I am back on Grand Loop Road in direction of Canyon Junction.

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

When I am slowly approaching the hills and mountains. I end up again in a heavy snow flurry. But anyways I am again still pretty early at the reception. When checking in I ask how things will look like tomorrow for Dunraven Pass. All in all the pass was closed just after I passed it the last time. And the weather does not really look promising. I receive the advice to start very early tomorrow, because the pass is still open. Usually they don’t close it this early. As long as I pass it before 10am, I might be able to pass it before they shut it down. Looks like I have to get up very early tomorrow.

Canyon Village, Yellowstone National Park, WY

This time I will stay overnight at the Dunraven Lodge, which is extremely expensive but has also a very nice interior. Especially as everything is still new. And there is also a coffee machine at the room. Because I will definitely leave the park tomorrow, I eventually start to write my picture post cards after I checked all my video taping of today.

Around half past seven I leave the Lodge and drive over for dinner. But to my horror the waiting is even longer than last time. All in all it will be 45 minutes of waiting!

Therefore I use the time to look through the gift shop again. After all I still look for a sweater as a present for back home. I am able to find a nice one and pay at the counter. The cashier has also read the book about John Colter. As there are not many people in the shop, we chat for a while.

Then I walk back to the restaurant. In the lobby is a whole party, who has rented the whole lobby for a couple of days. Probably this was also the reason, why I was not able to receive a table before. Around half past eight a table is eventually free for me — in exchange this one is directly at the fire place. There it is even so warm, that I can take off my sweater. This really feels great after all this cold the last days!

The dinner and service is excellent and around a quarter to ten I pay and drive back to my room. Then I finish writing my last post cards and fall exhausted into my bed…