TEAM RUFF: Daddy/Daughter 2010 (part 2)

The next morning we get up early, like before first light early because the girls want to see wildlife and be out amongst it right at dawn.
We do. There are deer and elk before we even leave the campground area and then a buffalo who is standing right in the middle of the road at o- dark thirty. Good fun.

We drive up to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone right as the sun is being to rise.

I believe this is from Grand View.

After we see enough of the canyon and have some breakfast, we decide that this is the day to get the whole Old Faithful experience over with. Actually, the girls are looking forward to it, and it's not actually the geyser which I loathe. It's all the junk around it. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We leave the canyon area and head west toward Norris and stop after awhile to take a hike to and around Ice Lake. This is in an area that was burned down to nothing in the fires of '88. All the dead burned trees are still there( because of the dry air out west-they don't rot like in the midwest), and a large number of them are still upright. The new forest has grown up around all this and 22 year old pines are now about 15 feet tall.

Jori's gotta climb

We eventually make it to the Old Faithful area. We arrive about 15 minutes before it gonna do its thing, so have have time to walk around the bleachers (yes, I'm serious) and find a spot on the other side of the geyser. We are just as close as the lemmings, but at least were in the dirt.

Old Faithful does its deal and we can get on with our lives. In case you have not had the opportunity to witness this natural spectacle, let me share a photo. That way you never have to go near the thing again.

Old Faithful being faithful

As you may have guessed, I'm not a big fan of this area of the park. Here's part of the reason why: within sight of the geyser are three hotels, gift shops, visitors center, gas station, post office, ranger station,clinic, at least 3 restaurants, acres of parking lots, bleachers, boardwalks and a gazillion people. Good grief.

We pull out of the parking lot, find our interchange ramp (really) and make our escape back toward Bridge Bay and the normal overcrowding in a National Park campground.

We get back and have dinner and head over to the ranger campfire talk. As it gets darker, its getting cold too.

Probably in the mid 40's now that the sun is gone.

The ranger talk is good. The girls are all snuggled up in blankets. The stars are amazing. We get back to camp, play dominoes in the tent for a while and gets some Zzzzzzzs.

Brrrr. Got cold during the night. Real cold. Like below freezing.

I get a fire going and then get the girls up....I'm cool like that.

The ranger at the campground store said it had gotten down to 25* overnight.

Once the sun came out, it started to get nice out. We chose to break camp, spend the day hiking and exploring and get to the Tetons before it was too late.

We stopped at a couple of overlooks along the way south and finally stopped for awhile at Lewis Falls.