8/12/10 Thursday - Teton & Yellowstone National Parks

Cloudy morning, we spent part of it in the Colter Bay Indian Museum and Visitor Center at Grand Teton. Bryn liked the nice baskets and stunning beadwork, but was disgusted with the lack of labels and a carry-along exhibit guide which didn't match the exhibits. Reed and Bret liked the weaponry display.

Then, on to Yellowstone National Park! We picked up the Junior Ranger information at the Grant Village Visitor Center, then off to Old Faithful. We got there about 15 minutes before it was due to go off, so we waited with the crowds. Wow! That was fun. Then we had a picnic lunch and walked around the geyser field, enjoying smaller geysers and fumaroles (steam vents). We were able to see the Castle Geyser go off for about 20 minutes, this occurs about every 14 hrs. We all liked watching the Anemone Geyser, it goes off every 7 – 10 minutes. At the end of our walk, we were able to watch Old Faithful once more. This time we were looking at it from the north. The interesting thing here is that we're downhill, so after a couple of minutes of spouting, the water flows down towards us. Of course we all touched it; it had been cooled off from contact with the air.

We drove through the park and out the north end at Mammoth Springs. On the way we enjoyed other geysers, elk, bison, and maybe a moose with two calves? Couldn't tell for sure through the forest, but we all really want it to be a moose family.

We crossed into Montana (new state for Bryn, Reed and Bret!), exited the park and are spending the night in Gardiner. Despite all of the L.A. Times reports, and the Xanterra Park Reservations, there are campsites available in the park, they just don't tell you until you get there. But because we didn't want to be stuck, we had made the hotel reservations, and it was too late to cancel. We hope to camp in Yellowstone on our return trip. Yes, we plan to come back, approaching from the east after we visit Ann Marie in Cody.