Information Echo

For fear of sounding like a broken record, the weather was once again perfect. Our luck continues.

We slept in and even after such I still felt groggy when waking up. Even the usual morning coffee just couldn’t seem to wake me up. I remember reading that some people are effected differently by the altitude of much of Yellowstone, and given some of the massive elevation changes over the last few days (being at sea-level only a few days ago) it seems that I might be falling prey to at least the “lethargy” part of the altitude sickness.

Once again putting the truck problems in the back of my mind (as much as possible as I was quite honestly freaking out about what could be wrong, still unsure about the exact issue) we decided to start the day by taking the tour to Old Faithfull.

After lining up at the actual park entrance (about 15 minutes) we paid our entry fee and headed into the park. With a keen eye open for any of the famous Yellowstone wildlife we headed for Old Faithfull. Within 10 minutes traffic was slowing down, and then almost stopped. We had heard of the famous Yellowstone traffic jams before, but had hoped to be able to avoid them, but it seems that wasn’t going to happen. After about 10 minutes in the traffic we came upon a curve in the road only to see that the jam went on for at least another mile. Ugh.

As we came around another corner we finally got to see what the jam was all about - a bald eagle nesting site was just to the side of the road and people were slowing down for pictures. There was signs instructing people to not slow down, not stop, and not park, but despite the presence of a park warden, clearly people were slowing down regardless and causing the jam.

Once past this area the traffic (thankfully) opened up and we reached the main loop road, turning south.

It wasn’t long and we were at one of the many famous Yellowstone thermal attractions. I honestly forget which ones we visited in what order as we stopped at several on the way, but each was a unique site to behold, despite the quite strong rotten-egg sulphur smell emanating from most of the springs and vents that left my kids cracking “who farted?” jokes.

We eventually reached Old Faithfull only to find that the parking lots were jammed full. After much driving around we finally found a spot (which was actually conveniently close to the geyser itself) and unloaded. Many photos, much video, and a geyser eruption occurred. Cool!

We checked out the giftshops (I finally found a “Yellowstone National Park” sticker for our trailer that I liked) and after spending an hour or so headed out. With a 90 minute interval between eruptions we simply didn’t find a whole lot to do to cover the time, and with the crowds growing to crazy proportions we felt like perhaps it was time to run - we’d seen Old Faithfull in all it’s glory.

On the way back we stopped at another thermal attraction that we had passed the first time. As we had endured earlier in the day, we once again waited in line for 15 minutes for the bathroom, which as is the case with most stops in Yellowstone short of the built-up Old Faithfull area) are simply glorified vault toilets of seriously questionable cleanliness. One major pet peeve of Yellowstone was that the bathrooms are simply inadequate. Vault toilets are understandable since many areas don’t have electricity or running water, but to only put two bathroom stalls in an area which potentially attracts several hundred (perhaps a thousand or more in peak times) per hour seems silly - there were constant lineups at all times at every attraction, with some people in line clearly not doing very well with the whole waiting thing, deciding to run off into the bushes instead.

After our bathroom adventure we headed out onto the catwalk and checked out the massive hot springs and steam vents at this attraction. There are signs everywhere warning people of the danger of as much as stepping off the boardwalks as many areas apparently look firm, but are simply skins on top of scalding hot water. I had no trouble with staying on the boardwalk until the point when the winds suddenly picked up and the skies suddenly blackened. I had to grab ahold of my hat and take extra caution to not get blown off the catwalk due to the still increasing wind gusts - I thought we were about to get soaked as we could see the rain in the distance, and it seemed to be heading our way.

That said, as has been the theme with this trip, our luck held firm and the storm skirted to the north of us, leaving us dry and free to enjoy the rest of the attraction, despite having rushed through some of it due to what appeared to be an imminent soaking.

Unfortunately our mechanical problems were still in the back of my head and I wanted to head into town with enough time left to find an open repair facility and have it assessed, so we headed for West Yellowstone once again. As we expected traffic was still backed up at the eagles nest, and with the park warden now absent people were blatantly ignoring the rules and parking on the side of the road, exiting the vehicles, and blocking traffic to get photos.

Arriving back in town I found a shop willing to deal with our issues, and made arrangements to drop off the truck the next morning bright and early.

We did some grocery shopping and browsed around town a bit, and then retired to the campsite for the rest of the day.

I had a bad feeling about tomorrow. I think this is going to be expensive.

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