Today was a very long day. We spent most of 10 hours in the car. We left our hotel at 7:45 and 62 degrees and headed back into Yellowstone National Park. There was no specific plan for the day except to see Old Faithful blow her top, so that is where we headed first. We arrived at the site around 10:15 AM (this park is huge). When we drove into the parking lot, there were no available spaces anywhere near the geyser, so Steve dropped me off by the lodge and went to park the car, which apparently, was a long distance away, because I was watching the eruption when he was making his way down the nearby parking lot. The timing for me was great, I didn't have to wait very long, but for Steve, not so good. He only saw the tail end of the big event.

As I waited for Steve to arrive, I kept my eye on the gravely tan mound in front of me. There were many people already seated on the benches, waiting. The steam was constantly rising and there was an occasional burp of bubbling water that got people excited, but no eruption, yet. Then suddenly there was a loud swisssshhhh and the water began to rise, bouncing up and down, reaching higher and higher each time. And the steam got bigger and the water began to spray with the wind. And what a sight to see. The entire eruption lasted less than a minute and a half. (You can see part of it on a video below.)

After a brief visit to the gift shop, Steve went to retrieved the car while I headed to the visitor center to get a map of Grand Teton National Park. Without cell service, this was risky, but eventually he found me waiting for him by the front door and we set off down the highway. After studying the map, it became clear that a visit to Grand Teton was doable, though it would be a long day. We decided to go for it. Yellowstone and Grand Teton are connected on the south side of Yellowstone. And since we were already on the south side of the park, it was just 70 miles to the best photo op in that park.

Grand Teton National Park is all about mountains. If you know a little French, you understand that the name of the park, translated into English, is Big Booby. (That is my word. You can use any word you like…tit, boob, breast, etc.) And when you see the photos, you will understand how the name was inspired, because one of the mountains, named Grand Teton, looks just like a woman’s boob, nipple and all. There are actually three tetons rising in the vicinity of 13,000 ft. We viewed these mountains from across Jackson Lake, rising in a purple haze, with patches of snow still adorning the majestic peaks. My research tells me these patches of snow that appear on the mountains even in the summer are glaciers. That accounts for the fact that the shapes don’t change much.

Of course the drive was not uneventful.  Maintenance crews were painting the center lines in the road, so 45 MPH was a mere 10 MPH for a number of miles, for many, many cars and RV’s. And if that was not enough, they were out there again on the way back up the road, so we lost about an hour of travel time. Add to that, being stuck behind a rented RV for 2 hours, that was going 15-20 miles under the speed limit…well, getting back to the hotel was a bit of a challenge, and made for a very long day. So, 2 days in Yellowstone and 4 traffic jams. I am not sure I like those odds.

When we returned to the hotel at 6 PM, Beamer let us know that it was well past his dinner time, and he gobbled up his food like he had not eaten in days. Poor guy. After getting back and having dinner, we settled in for the night. Tomorrow is the drive to Salt Lake City, our way-point on the route to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in southern Utah.

Just a note: The videos do not play well on Ipad. They should be viewed on a PC.