His First Experience of Yellowstone

My parents took us (my sister and me) to Yellowstone when we were 8 and 10 years old. But my grandson had never been here before.

Memories that I have include my father using a schedule that the park service gave him to see what geysers were going to erupt, and going to wait for them. And also walking the boardwalk of Biscuit Basin.

My little sister, my mom and me in 1948 - Biscuit Basin

10 June Continued

Flying In

When we arrived, my grandson J. was extremely impressed with the smallness of the airport (one gate, two rental car places, a snack bar, and bathrooms was about it.)

J's photo of the Yellowstone Airport

J's photo of the Yellowstone Airport building

I had a rental car waiting and they gave me a white Sonata with

Idaho license plate

similar to mine that I had at home. I didn't take the insurance or any of the extras.

One thing that was a little different (if I understand it correctly) was that if I drove less than 75 miles, they would charge me extra for gas whether it was full or not. We got a map of West Yellowstone from the car rental place.

My grandson dragged his wheeled bag with my computer bag on top across the gravel/sand parking lot (gravel is not good for wheeled bags - you need a hard surface for them to 'wheel') and we put the stuff into the trunk. I was thinking it was time for lunch, but we were too anxious to get to the Old Faithful Inn to stop in West Yellowstone and went directly to the park entrance.

We got in free with my Golden Age passport. Otherwise the permit for a car would be $25.00. My grandson thought that was cool. The lady manning the entrance booth gave us a lot of useful information and told us how to get to the Old Faithful Inn where we would be staying. I asked her when check-in time was and she said she used to work there and it was 1400 but they would probably have our rooms ready because we wouldn't get there until about 1300. This was correct.

From the west entrance in Montana to the Old Faithful Inn is about 30 miles. There were even some informational signs along the way about the routes people took to get into the park.

Informational sign about the travels of Indians and Mountain Men in the river valley

Part of the sign says: Stagecoaches traveled this route from 1880 to 1917. Early service was from Virginia City to the Lower Geyser Basin. The 95 mile trip took 16 hours. Stages later met trains at Monida, Montana. In 1907 the railroad reached West Yellowstone.

The first animals we saw were some bison,

First bison sighting

Bison

and then we stopped to take photos of an eagle's nest.

J's photo of the eagle's nest

We also heard a raven

Raven saying “Balk”

which J said was saying "Balk Balk Balk" (like to a baseball pitcher). We saw our first view of the geysers

First geyser view

after we turned down toward the Old Faithful area and we went by Biscuit Basin

J. also took a photo of a bluebird and I took one of an old fisherman with a Santa Claus beard fishing in the river

Santa Claus fisherman

J's photo of Old Faithful

Parking at the Inn was a bit of a problem as it was kind of rainy and there was an veteran car rally there (The Red Rock Rendezvous Antique car rally) and the really old cars were under the porte cochere.

This was a tour where 13 drivers from around the country drove vehicles built before 1915 through the scenic roads of Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park and Colorado.

A newspaper story about them said, "Drivers generally hum along about 40 to 45 miles per hour and cover somewhere between 150 and 220 miles in a day, depending on road conditions, weather and the amount of time spent waiting for buffalo to cross their paths". When we crossed the country in 1964 and 1966 in our 1932 Plymouths, we did about the same speed, but we usually did a little more mileage.

FInally a space to park our rental car

Eventually I found a place to park and we walked in a registered.

I had a hard time getting a reservation here because I wanted two beds and did not want to share a bathroom with someone else. If you can possibly book here, this is the place to stay. But even if you can't do that, you should go and look at the inside of this National Historic Landmark. The nearly 700 feet in length and seven stories high Old Faithful Inn was designed by Robert C. Reamer, who wanted the asymmetry of the building to reflect the chaos of nature. It was built around 1903 and is one of the few remaining log hotels in the United States. In the lobby is a massive rhyolite fireplace, and railings made of contorted lodgepole pine.

Looking up in the lobby at the railings made of contorted lodgepole pine

My photo (left) and J's photo of the massive rhyolite fireplace

They did not tell us anything about needing to pick up a ticket for the Ring of Fire tour the next day although they mentioned the tour.

They gave us keys (real keys, not the ones like a credit card) and we were in the East Wing on the front. That meant walking along a corridor, turning down another corridor, walking half the length of the East Wing to the elevator and then walking all the way back to our room. It was quite a hike for me.

There were no televisions, radios, air conditioning, or internet available at all. There was a phone.

Table in our room with coffee pot and ice bucket

There was a shrank/wardrobe, and this time it was not a TV cabinet (the one in SLC had doors that you could push back into the cabinet to reveal the TV), but just a place for clothes, and there was a little fan in there.

Wardrobe with my cane and seating area

The bathroom was in a 20s style,

Bathtub and toilet

and I took photos of the tiles around the bathroom which had silhouettes of animals on them

Decorative tiles - wolf and bison

Ergonomic soap - hole for holding it

I took photos of the soap (in the shape of a bear and one in the shape of a leaf)

Leaf soap

Sink with hair dryer and closeup of the soaps in the bathroom - this is the bear soap

The sink and the mirror were outside the bathroom so someone could shave while someone else was using the shower. Our window looked out toward Old Faithful and you could see if it was going off from the window. It was screened so photos from there wouldn't be very good,

Thru the screen from the room

but was very convenient for my grandson who is much more mobile and he was able to run outside to take pictures very quickly

Old Faithful

Plush animal in room (for sale)

In our room was a felt buffalo that we could buy to support the park.

We went back downstairs

Back of Old Faithful Inn - through the screen

Directional sign by the fireplace

I felt that we had to have lunch but the Old Faithful Inn dining room wasn't open.

Off the lobby is a place called the "Bear Pit" Lounge;

Bear Pit

We never tried to eat here. The website says: Adorned with etched glass panels inspired by the original wooden Bear Pit Murals, the lounge offers a pleasant locale for a drink, appetizers and fond recollections of the day.

We saw a sign that there was a cafeteria off the lobby, so we went into the deli, and got sandwiches (I had to sit down on my cane in the cashiers line because the woman in front of us was trying to make her kid promise to eat something if she bought it, and she took an incredibly long time doing that.) There was also a bake shop.

We ate the sandwiches sitting next to the entrance of the West Wing as I did not have the energy to go back to our room. J's was some kind of lunch meat,

Grandson's Sandwich

and mine was a Dagwood sub, which was soggy.

My soggy Dagwood sub

I got cranberry juice to drink, and we shared a cinnamon bun

Too sweet

which we both thought had too much icing. We didn't try the ice cream.

J. ran out to take photos of Old Faithful when it went off at 1500.

Grandson's picture

I just took a photo from outside the Inn

Old Faithful erupting

My dad's photo in 1948

Then we decided to drive down to Grand Teton NP so I could get my National Park Passport stamped. We stopped at Kepler Cascades and J. got out and took some photos,

J's photo of Kepler Falls - looking down

Bottom of the Kepler Cascades

and then we stopped

Shoshone Lake on drive down to Grand Teton Park

at the Shoshone Lake overlook. We went across the Continental Divide three times and I stopped once and took J's picture standing next to the sign.

Continental Divide

Who scratched the tree?

Driving in Grand Tetons

We got down to Grand Teton - the John D Rockefeller Memorial Parkway.

John D Rockefeller Drive sign

First stop at Grand Teton - Flagg Ranch gift shop

Flagg Ranch was the first place we came to. It was raining a lot and there was a lot of standing water on the roads. We went into the lodge there and they said the ranger station where we could have gotten my passport stamped was closed. Since it was such bad weather and I was getting sleepy, I decided to turn around and go back.

Back to Yellowstone in the rain

Free for us with Golden Age Pass

Then of course it cleared up.

We stopped at Scaup Lake and took some reflection photos.

J. at Scaup Lake

Reflections

Falls

We got back to the Old Faithful Inn (OFI) about 1900 after 117 miles. That takes care of the 75 mile problem

From the parking lot to the East Wing

I thought it was time for dinner. I called on J's phone, but the first reservation we could get in the dining room was 21:15, and I thought that was too late, so we ate in the Fountain area of the General Store. Built in 1897, this was the first store in the Old Faithful area. Adjacent to the Old Faithful Inn, the unique burl wood highlights

Burled wood of the General Store

original marble counter and fountain stools represent the National Park’s rustic tradition. (You can eat at the counter or they will bring your food to the table - we are at the counter.)

Fountain and tables

Menu

Sitting at the counter having dinner - reflected in mirror

They cook each meal to order so service isn't always completely efficient, but the workers try to please. I don't remember what we had for dinner but a cheeseburger and fries was $8.10.

It was still light, so I suggested to J that he do the loop around the hotel and look at the thermal features, and he did. These photos below are all his

First Old Faithful again, and then he saw

Beehive Geyser (not erupting at this time)

and many other pools and geysers

Chinese hot spring

Bubbling hot spring

Ear pool

Sawmill geyser

Liberty pool

Algae mat

Hot spring with algae

Orange Spring

Rainbow of death

Rainbow

Chromatic pool

Beauty Pool

Aurum geyser

Doublet pool

Grotto geyser

Castle geyser

Old Faithful and the Inn

While he was gone, I organized my stuff and left a wake-up call for 6:30 and ordered box lunches for the next day. He came back about 2100, very cold as he only had on a short sleeved shirt and a jacket.

We had no internet, but we downloaded the photos out of the cameras and did some editing.