After waking up at the Old Faithful Inn on our second day inside of Yellowstone, we quickly grabbed breakfast at the Old Faithful Dining Room.  We rushed through eating so we could run outside and catch an early daylight eruption of the Old Faithful Geyser.  Unfortunately, the predicting clock inside the Inn was not accurately updated, so we only caught the tail end of the eruption.  To make sure we wouldn’t miss anymore eruptions, we next made a quick stop at the brand new Old Faithful Visitors Center, which predicts six of the many geysers in the geyser basin.

We were told that Daisy Geyser would be erupting soon, so we quickly walked the mile long trail to it.  We waited for around a half hour for the eruption which lasted a few minutes.  It was our first of multiple eruptions that we would catch.  From there we continued walking a little farther out to the Morning Glory Pool, the first of many colorful, bacteria filled, hot spring we would see.  We then continued to walk throughout the Upper Geyser Basin, taking the longer route back toward Old Faithful.  Once there we waited another fifteen or twenty minutes for another Old Faithful eruption.  Pictures don’t really do the geyser much justice, but it can shoot up to 180 feet in the air!

After having our fill of Old Faithful, we packed up the car and drove over to the Black Sand Basin area.  Before exploring that area, we actually walked back over to the Upper Geyser Basin that we had already seen, so that we could catch an eruption of Riverside Geyser.  We found a nice place to sit and wait for Riverside, which is only predictable to within an hour or two.  While waiting we were fortunate to catch an eruption of Grotto Geyser, which was quickly followed by the Riverside eruption.  We didn’t get to see a rainbow at Riverside, which is what makes it famous, but it was still another cool eruption to watch.  Having our fill of geysers for the day, we continued back to the Black Sand Basin area for a quick visit, and then on to Midway Geyser Basin.

The primary attraction at the Midway Geyser Basin is Grand Prismatic Spring, which is the park’s largest and deepest hot spring.  A friend told me that the view from the geyser basin wasn’t very good, but we decided to check it out anyway.  He couldn’t have been more correct though.  So we backtracked to the Fairy Falls Trailhead, for a two-mile roundtrip hike up to a ridge for unbelievable views of this very colorful thermal feature.  I would highly recommend this short hike for some of the coolest scenery you can see in the park.

From there it was on to the Lower Geyser Basin to check out the Fountain Paint Pot, and a few other geysers and pools.  The Fountain Paint Pot is a mud pot, which is basically a mud filled hole that has many vents through it causing the mud to create gooey bubbles.  Again, photos don’t compare to actually sitting and watching this feature for a few minutes.  It is by far the weirdest thermal area in the park.  From here we had definitely had our fill of thermals for the day, so we started the drive over toward the Canyon Village, where we would stay for the next couple of nights.

Along this drive we encountered many bison, some of which were just standing in the middle of the road.  They seem to be completely fearless animals, but it provided for some nice photo opportunities.  We also made a couple of detours to check out the Firehole Falls and Virginia Cascade, before finally reaching the Canyon Lodge.  After checking in, we ventured back out and drove south toward Hayden Valley, which is a great wildlife viewing spot.  We spotted many more bison along the way, and even some wolves far out in the distance.   Once the sun had set, we headed back toward Canyon and had a mediocre dinner at the Canyon Lodge Dining Room before retiring for the night completely exhausted.

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