Twenty Years in Yellowstone (Unfaithful)

Today started off badly. Troy had a full-blown meltdown at breakfast because my wife didn’t have her phone, and he couldn’t watch videos while he ate. So, he threw a fit and refused to eat. We finished our breakfast, picked up his food, and headed upstairs. That’s when he started to cry. So, we wrangled him upstairs, so he could get it all out without disturbing everyone else in the hotel. He was still wailing in the room, so I set a timer on my phone and told him that he had until it went off to eat, or we were packing up and leaving. My wife offered to read him a book, and eventually, he calmed down and ate. But it set a sour tone for the day.

We decided to forego animal sightings and head to Old Faithful instead. My wife has wanted to go every day, but we never made it. So, today was the day. We tried to get Troy pumped by telling him that we were going to see a mini volcano, but disinterested four-year old that he is, he said he’d rather go to the playground.

We went to the famous geyser anyway, despite Troy’s objections. But before we got there, we had another bison encounter along the road. A big bull was making his way across a meadow and into the river. As he stood in the middle of the river, we thought how majestic the scene was…the dark-blue river, the green trees, and a giant bison. Then, he lifted his tail and pooped in the water, and the moment was gone!

We were about an hour early for the next eruption, so we let Troy explore the visitor center while we waited. We headed out 30 min early to get a good seat, because the benches were already filling up. Troy lasted a whopping two minutes before he was asking to go. We told him to be patient, and he’d see something amazing. A smaller geyser erupted in the distance, and he said, “That was amazing. Can we go now?” We told him that that wasn’t even close and to hang on a little longer. Every few minutes, he’d ask if we could go now. It was like the Old Faithful equivalent of “Are we there yet?”

When the geyser started its pre-eruptions, Troy asked almost sarcastically, “Was that it? Was that the amazing thing?” It got to be where the people around us were laughing at his running commentary and our failed attempts to get him to wait and be patient. So, I guess it served some useful purpose. When Old Faithful finally erupted, Troy was stunned and interested for five whole seconds. Then, he said we’d seen it and promptly asked if we could go. We made him sit through the entire three-minute eruption, despite him pointing out that other people were already leaving.

On the way back, we stopped at the trail for Fairy Falls and the Grand Prismatic Overlook. I thought it would be a good place for Troy to get out and stretch his legs, actually get in a hike and get some energy out. Instead, he fell asleep on the backseat right before we got there. My wife thought that was a good idea; so she parked, cranked back the seat, and took a nap too. That meant I was hiking the four-mile trail by myself, which in the end was probably a good thing. There’s no way either of them would have made it.

I started off with the overlook, which was only a short hike, but had a steep incline to the observation deck. My wife wanted another picture of the Grand Prismatic geyser, since the last time we had tried, there was too much smoke to actually see it. After that I decided to try my luck with Fairy Falls. I figured they’d want to sleep awhile, and I had nothing else to do.

The hike to the falls was 1.6 miles each way. It was a nice leisurely walk through the woods though, so not very taxing. It took me a while, because I was taking pictures and because I was constantly on the lookout for bears. I passed quite a few people on the way back from the falls, but nobody else going to them. It wasn’t until I finally got to Fairy Falls that I realized how alone and vulnerable I truly was. I snapped a few pictures, but I didn’t stay long. As I turned to leave, something small ran across my path. I followed it and realized that it was a chipmunk scampering across the rocks. We might not have had the same quality of animal encounters on this trip, but we’ve seen more varieties.

I started to get worried that I’d been away too long (over two hours), so I ran most of the way back down the trail. I shouldn’t have been too worried though, because when I got back to the car, Troy and my wife had just woken up and were enjoying a snack.

It was late afternoon when we pulled away, so we decided to try the Firehole Canyon Drive. It was one of the places the wolf watcher had suggested that we might see wolves. The drive was beautiful, and the views of the river and various waterfalls were breathtaking. But no wolf sightings. I did see what looked like it might have been a bear cave complete with animal bone remains outside the entrance, but who really knows.