Yellowstone and Grand Teton
Used Gypsy app: $15 for a driving tour, gives info and descriptions without reception. Very nice!
Day 1:
Fountain Flat Dr.: see bison with their young crossing the river.
Silex pool beautiful blue in middle.
Fountain paint pots where microorganisms turn minerals into sulfuric acid which then turn rock into clay that bubble up.
Jet geyser shoots up every few minutes.
We missed Fountain geyser every 3-4hr by a bit.
Clepsydra gyser (pic) that keeps on erupting.
Kepler cascades drops 150m down multiple steps. Right by the road.
Didn't realize Yellowstone is on a huge hot spot and could erupt and be a huge volcano.
Grand Teton
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| Grand Teton Viewpoint (on drive down from Yellowstone) |
Staying at Colter Bay.
Cabins are close to the bay with a nice Lakeshore trail looking out towards Grand Teton. Didn't realize Tetons are so spectacular because they seem to rise out of the water, without surrounding hills because they are formed by plates shifting over one another, not two colliding.
Jenny lake ferry hike to hidden lake and inspiration point. We saw a grizzly bear crossing the lake!
Schwabacker Landing: parking right by the river and pond and got to see a Moose munching in the pond!
Day 2 Teton
Bradley and Taggart lake hike. About 5mi rt. It had some elevation but pretty easy and very scenic the entire way. The calm water of Taggart and it's reflection of the Tetons was so beautiful. We also met some people from Meyerland, Houston with a 15mo!
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| Bradley Lake |
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| Taggart Lake (closer) |
Yellowstone
We were lucky when we first got there, there was a old faithful eruption. We only had to wait 5 minutes!
And then we thought that we would be lucky to get see the Grand Geyser, but because Rift geyser had erupted yesterday, it made the timing off. We waited an extra hour out of the waiting period. And then we had to leave cuz Baobao couldn't stand it anymore. But then as we were approaching the old faithful inn, we saw the eruption in in the distance. It really was quite grand.
We want the rest of that upper geyser basin and saw some beautiful springs and geysers.
Infant geyser
Giant geyser hadn't erupted since 2019. But it looked giant.
Sawmill geyser happened to be erupting while we walked by, causing us to get splashed.
Spa geyser looked very inviting.
Morning geyser at the end was so clear and beautiful. It was totally worth it to walk all the way to end.
Castle geyser looked like a castle
Grotto geyser was strangely shaped. Theory is that it formed on stumps.
While we were waiting for grand geyser, we saw Daisy erupt and Old Faithful again. And then another time while feeding Baobao. And behive erupted as we were leaving.
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| Daisy |
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| Old Faithful from the Inn |
The old faithful inn was definitely worth a visit! Looks like a forest on the inside!
Yellowstone continued:
In the early cool morning, all the geysers and steam vents are steamy: looks like a bit kitchen!
Turquoise Pool:
Excelsior geyser hasn't erupted in a long time. But last time, it was so forceful, it messed up it's geyser plumbing.
Grand Prismatic Spring is so impressive. The colors are like the rainbow, formed by super-heat loving organism.
Bison decided to cross the road when we parked:
Yellowstone continued (Norris geysers): Apparently these are the hottest geysers in the world!
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| Steamboat geyser is the largest in the world. But it could erupt anywhere from 4 days to 50 years. We only caught a small splutter. |
Cistern spring drains away when Steamboat erupts:
Most acidic geyser:
So blue!
Caught Vixen geyser erupting
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone: apparently this picture drew people to come to Yellowstone way back in the day.
Big sky resort: nice to have ski lifts to go up see the view of lone peak
