June 20 - Geyser Tour

My legs were very sore from a 24 mile hike the day before. I decided to do the geyser tour, which is driving from one spot to another with limited walking.

	The first shot I think is from the Firehole Canyon Drive. I was so tired, these early shots are just taken in a daze.
	This is Fountain Flat Drive. I walked about 1/4 mile back here, but nothing really to be seen. I tried to get a backcountry site back in here, but they were already taken. There were a bunch of Bison hanging out by this mud pot. I only got a shot of one of them.
	This is the Fountain Paint Pot area. The smells and colors are indescribable. Sometimes steam, sometimes sulfer. The steam hits you then a cool wind hits you and causes a quick chill as the water evaporates.
	I drove next to Firehole Lake. This geyser had been spewing steam off and on. I sat here for about 20 minutes and relaxed.
	This geyser was going off as I drove up to it. Of course, my batteries died...
	A few shots around Firehole lake.
	Excelsior geyser and Saphire pool.
	Some really neat patters in the ground around the geyser and pool. This has boiling water running over it.
	Some more shots of the back side of the excelsior geyser.
	Biscuit Basin pools and geysers.
	This is a huge favorite of mine. Looks like one of the "river of life" pictures I've been drawing for years.
	This was a neat pool of boiling water. It was very deep. When the sun, which was directly abive it came out you could see the depths and the color was fascinating.
	Another pool and a geyser in the Biscuit Basin that started erupting.
	Black Sand Basin. Some amazing pools and patterns in this basin.
	And the final stop at the end of the tour was Old Faithful with about 4000 other people. There really were that many people there to see it.
	Afterwards, I got a backcountry permit for a camp site that was only about a mile and a half off the road. I stopped by the ranger station at the trailhead and she said there would be a few trees down, but the site was well marked (although she had not yet visited it this year). It started raining after I got my pack set and I stayed in the car about 40 minutes as I could see blue sky in the distance. It stopped raining and I started walking around 4pm. These pictures are from the place where I turned around in realization that I had passed the campsite. And also had climbed over about 40 downed trees just like the day before. I don't have the pictures because after I got about a half mile out, the sky opened up and starting dropping buckets of watter on my head. I stopped and donned my rain gear, so I was mostly dry, but my pack and my back suffered from sappling trees very close to the trail full of water. They would brush on you and soaked my pack and bag. I would have expected this in May, but this was June 20, less than two weeks from the busiest season for Yellowstone. I had heard rumors of underfunding, but every ranger station was full of rangers sitting by the warmth of fires chatting. I don't think there was underfunding, just a lack of motivation.
	I found the exact spot on the map where the camp site should have been and looked around for a while and finally decided to pack out again. On the way back out there was this big bird on the trail honking wildly. I tried to get by, but his beak looked awefull sharp. Must have been a nest nearby. I went back a hundred yards and picked up a big stick as he just wasn't going to let me pass. I held the stick in the air as I walked towards him as if to say "He buddy, now I'm not only bigger than you, but I'm holding a big stick". The forest was echoing with his honking. He moved down the trail further and I was able to cross over a log bridge and continue on.
	I got back and had a discussion with a different ranger about the condition of the trails and backcountry. She offered me a walk-in (no car) camp site for $5 and I took it. These are pictures from the next morning. That evening I had a very nice conversation with a retired attorney from Austrailia. He offered wine and we stood near the picnic table and talked. He worked for the Australian equivalent of the SEC. I hadn't really spoken to anyone since leaving Dillon so it was nice to have company. I decided to leave the next day even though my plans were to stay for nearly a week. It just wasn't a good place to hike in the backcountry. I planned on staying in the National Forest camp grounds just outside the East gate.

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