To Old Faithful

Tuesday, August 29. Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful, within Yellowstone National Park.

Ever since we came down the 5-mile descent into Mammoth Hot Springs, I've been psyching myself up for the ascent. After a relaxing rest day in Mammoth, and a hearty breakfast in the hotel's dining room, we started out to conquer the ascent. Thankfully, the 5-mile climb was the first part of the day's 50+ mile ride, and somehow, it proved easier than anticipated. Part of the road was under construction, so with one-way traffic delays, we didn't have many cars to contend with. And, we got all kinds of thumbs-up (thumb-ups?) from the construction crews. As I thought, we had plenty of time to enjoy the Silver and Golden Gates on the crawl to the top of the pass.

As we crested the summit, we again saw Swan Lake and Flats, and the Gallatin Range; a bit later, we passed North and South Twin Lakes and Apollinaris Spring--all sights we'd seen on our trip down to Mammoth, so we didn't slow down for them this time.

Once we reached the crossroads at Norris, the road's shoulder reappeared, giving us plenty of room at last. Nice, not to have to focus so fiercely on the mirror anymore - especially since we were now on road we had not covered before and wanted to be sure to take in all the sights to be taken in.

First up was Artist's Paintpots, a few miles beyond Norris. The steep, rough trail took us past frothing, steaming pools and upwards to the bubbling mud pots; we decided that the bubbling mud looks like faces with wide eyes and big, O-shaped mouths. We laughed as we provided the various soundtracks the faces could be singing - Goodnight Irene, Santa Baby, and even Mr. Sandman. We seemed to be the only ones laughing at the mud pots. I don't care.

Back in the parking lot, we sat and enjoyed a few snacks; we noticed a van with a Georgia license plate, and most remarkable was that it was from Gwinnett County, where this whole long trek began. We sat there a while, but the driver and passengers did not return by the time we felt it necessary to leave, so we don't know if it was anyone we know. There was a couple that stopped and parked right in front of us, but they didn't go up the trail. They asked us if it was worth the walk, and we perhaps undersold it - for us, virtually everything is worth the walk, but we've seen so much that we unconsciously draw relative comparisons to some of the other spectacles. They sort of shrugged and got back in the car. I just don't get it.

Next on the road was Gibbon Falls, the main elevation-losing feature on the Gibbon River. Riding along Gibbon River, with views only possible from a bicycle, we kind of felt sorry for all the cars, RV's and busses passing us - there was no way they could be experiencing this the same way we were. It wasn't until we got to the falls that I looked at the elevations of the places we were going - Madison Junction was a full 300 feet lower than where we were standing, but Old Faithful was another 300 feet higher. We would descend to Madison Junction and then have to climb back up to the elevation of Old Faithful. In the gathering wind. It occured to me that this would be a good day for sightseeing, taking multiple stops to get off the bike.

We reached Terrace Spring, about a mile from Madison Junction; as we arrived, there was just one car there, leaving as we rolled up. We had the little-known sidelight all to ourselves.

The climb from Madison towards Old Faithful seemed much longer than it was because of the relentless HEADWIND. Although the actual length of the climb turned out to be just under 2 miles, it seemed like we were going up for the entire 16 miles there.

As I hoped, we made several stops: first was Fountain Paint Pots (where our bikes blew over and some good samaritans stood them back up for us), followed shortly by the Midway Geyser Basin (where we saw Excelsior Geyser Crater and the Grand Prismatic Spring pouring steaming water into the Firehole River), and then the Biscuit Geyser Basin. In that stop, we saw Jewel Geyser, which erupted just as we approched. Another feature there was the absolutely stupendous Sapphire Pool, which rightfully is called the most beautiful spring in the park. The pool is deep, and the center is an impossible shade of pure blue, the likes of which I believe I have only ever seen before in dreams. Around the edges exist thermophiles (a word hurled at us repeatedly in the educational signs standing at nearly every such pool), microscopic creatures that subsist in very high-temperature water. The neat thing is that you can tell how hot the water is by the color of the thermophilic colony there. They range in color from green to yellow to orange and brown. The result is a rainbow around the periphery of hot springs.

As we were leaving, we saw a small group of people looking up towards the road on our right, and shifting our eyes to that direction we were startled to see a Buffalo walking by, not twenty feet from us. It sauntered on by, paused to "lighten his load", and then moved on. Amusing as this was, we were even more startled to find that, once we got back out on the road, this same buffalo had managed to make his way up to the road and block traffic. We cautiously picked our way around the jam and continued on our way.

Finally, near 7pm, we arrived at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. We had spent just over 5 and a half hours cycling, but the whole day had taken almost 10 hours because of all the stops. We were exhausted, but not so much so that we would miss seeing Old Faithful erupt, for over 4 minutes, just after 8pm. We caught it all on (digital) film before heading off to dinner. Before we ate, though, we walked in to Old Faithful Inn (and by the way, WOW). This Inn is the truly historic property in this area, dating to 1904, with wings built in 1913 and 1927. It is a huge log structure and is cozy while still voluminous. More on that later, though.

At dinner, we had the first really flavorful dinner we've had in the park (other than our camp dinners) - fruit-stuffed pork chop slices and portobella-quinoa ragout. It was delicious and filling, and we ate too much.

We were tired enough that we were able to sleep despite the sound of thundering footsteps and what we believed to be construction activity directly above us, lasting until after 1:30am. They were at it again before 6am, so imagine my surprise to find that upstairs from our guest room was - another guest room. The noise was coming from OTHER GUESTS. I was appalled.

We had breakfast and checked out, and began our exploration of the upper geyser basin before our anticipated departure for West Yellowstone. We wandered down to the end of the trail, and then back, pausing at most every pool and geyser, every fumarole and steam vent, joking every once in a while that the wind seemed to have let up (usually during particularly strong gusts). Although we hadn't planned on it, we elected to have lunch before leaving, and headed over to the grill in the Snow Lodge, choosing a quiet table for two at the back.

While we sat there eating, one of the grill employees, Bob, stopped and asked us where we were from. We told him Atlanta, and it was very nearly the last thing we said for about the next 15 minutes as "Preacher" Bob (he is a preacher, we found out) spoke at length about his time helping the homeless in Atlanta, his experience with a murder suspect, his three college degrees, how he had two heart attacks, broke his femur, and was stabbed 14 times. We could only sit in rapt attention as his story went on and on. And on.

In the short span of time we had to talk (as Bob left to bus tables), we decided to take one more day at Old Faithful, this time sleeping at the Inn we were so enamoured of yesterday. We beat a hasty retreat to the Snow Lodge front desk so they could check to see if the Inn had a room available.

They had room at the Inn for us, a room that faced Old Faithful and that was on the third floor, so we could actually see the geyser (unlike lower floors, which had views partially obstructed by trees). It was a little pricey, but you only live once, so we took it.

We watched one eruption from our room and then went to the expansive lobby to get some blogging and reading done. Around 6, a man sat at the piano and began playing; I drifted over and requested Satie's Gymnopidies #1, which he promptly played beautifully. It was nice, relaxing.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner (although we had to wait until 9), and turned in about a half-hour before Old Faithful was due to erupt again; I was able to stay up long enough to see it, but Nancy was asleep. I just wanted to see if we could hear it from our open window, but the wind was still so strong and loud that it drowned out the sound of the geyser.

The wind is supposed to be calm tomorrow, and we intend to get started early for a change (with one stop at the Black Sand Basin before leaving the Old faithful area). We'll see. Until then!