Yellowstone NP

To make it easier on you and me I'm going to do the first three days at the park in one blog,less emails for you and less uploading for me. I took over 300 pictures just on the first day so don't expect all of them but just a few highlights.I will provide a link to all the photos later.

I would just like to thank the person who invented memory foam bed toppers because the beds in Grants Village are HARD,I read in Tripadvisor.com that they were so we bought 3 twin toppers for the trip and they did the trick. We reserved a tour of the park to get a overview to see what we did or did not want to spend extra time at,it was called "The Ring of Fire" tour and it lasted all day with 4-5 long stops and a lunch break.Stopped at all the geyser basins and "The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone".

Our first stop was at Lake Yellowstone and it's hotel,the lake is the largest lake above 7,000 ft in North America at 7,732 and with 110 miles of shoreline it took us 3 hour to drive around it.The Yellowstone Hotel was first built in 1891 but renovated in 1903,1929 and 1981. After 45 mins we boarded the bus for the trip to the Canyon Area but first we stopped at the first of many waterfalls on the Yellowstone River The Upper Falls of Yellowstone River The water level is high for this time of year because of a June snow storm so the flow is strong. We then headed to the Canyon area of the park to see there version of our canyonnot as spectacular but interesting water falls into the canyon

Had lunch at the Canyon Visitor Center then it was off to Norris Geyser Basin for Mud Pots,Hot Springs and Geysers.When you get their you feel you are not on earth or on earth thousands of years ago,with mud boiling up from below

and hot springs with water over 175 degrees the orange color is bacteria growing in the cool 120 degree water.Then there is the geysers with hot water traveling through cracks in the earth until the pressure is to great and they explode

After getting our fill of the hot stuff we are off to see what most people come to Yellowstone for,Old Faithful.Most geysers are sporadic when it comes to eruptions,some once a day,some once a year or some have not stopped but Old Faithful goes off every 90 min +or- 10 minutes. They measure the height of the geyser and the length of the eruption to predict the next one.A short height and a long duration means a shorter span between eruptions..

This was the last tour stop so we headed back to Grants Village and our room for the night,the next blog will be on Mammoth Hot Springs in the northern part of the park.