Yellowstone Adventure - Day 13

  Got up early and had some cereal for breakfast. The cooks had my lunch sack ready so I could have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the park. Did I mention that the cooks for us are great people and very good cooks. I loaded up the car with the supplies and headed to the Norris geyser basin for a morning hike. The weather was cold but sunny as I headed out. My car said it was thirty nine degrees and it felt it but for me that is a good hiking temperature.  I called Cathy to say good morning to her before I left cell range as the park has limited cell coverage. Things were fine at home as she was heading to Terre Haute to get something's done. As I headed past the turn to West Yellowstone I came to a meadow with a gentle rising hill behind it. I notice an eagle flying over the area so I pulled over to stop and see. Sure enough the eagle was going from tree to tree and was soon joined by another younger eagle that has not developed it's white feathers yet. Both eagles flew around the meadow going from tree to to tree top. I figured they were searching for breakfast. After watching them for a few minutes I continued on to the Norris geyser basin.  
  I arrived there in about thirty minutes and found the normally packed parking area only half full. Which was very nice. A tip for anyone visiting is that if you want a parking spot at a popular place then get there early. Most tourists don't get moving until later in the morning. Before I left my vehicle I put on some sunscreen and my floppy hat. I also was wearing a hooded sweatshirt it was still only forty degrees.  I walked down the path toward the geyser basin and looked at the map on the basin. It seemed to me to be broken into two hikes and I chose the longer one for the morning hike.  The geyser basin was filled with geysers, vents and springs of all kinds. The first thing I noticed, besides the sulfur smell, was the sounds. You could hear many of the geyser and vents as you walked the trails. The park does a fantastic job at creating trails to walk around the park. Many trails are elevated walkways and smooth areas so that even those in wheelchairs could go on many of the trails. They do this also so that hikers do not venture off the path and into unstable areas of the basin. The geyser basin is surrounded by snow covered mountains and that makes the hike very pleasant. I won't detail every geyser in the area but I will mention two that I liked. The first was steamboat geyser that brags as the biggest geyser in height of water spewed when erupting. They say when it goes it will reach a height of four hundred feet. Which is a lot higher than old faithful.  The problem is that it does not erupt on a regular schedule.  The chances that I could catch an eruption were very slight.  The other geyser I liked was vixion geyser. You see I pretty much walked past this little geyser on my hike as it was just a small geyser along the path doing nothing. Then it erupted and sprayed water over the path at about forty feet in height. I walked back down the path and watched it go off several times and even got sprayed by it when the wind changed.  I really enjoyed the morning hike and after the loop I headed for the car and my peanut butter sandwich lunch. It was eleven thirty and the parking lot was packed. I opened the back end of the car and climbed in. I found that when the hatch is up on the car it makes a great place to have a picnic. As I prepared the lunch I watched all the cars passing by looking for an open spot. The line of cars never stopped as I sat there to eat my lunch. The good news was I got two more license plates for my license plate game.  
  After my hearty lunch I went back to the basin and proceeded to take the second loop around the basin. This loop was also a great hike and I got to see many more geysers and vents. But this loop went over a lot of streams and places where the land was gurgling like sausage on a griddle. Very interesting in deed. I finished the lower loop after about an hour hike and I proceeded back up the path to the car. The parking lot was still full and I  am sure that the guy that took my parking space was very happy. 
  I left the geyser basin and headed to Mammoth Hot Springs just to see if they were busy. Sure enough the place was packed and even the elk could not find a parking space. The area has elk that come into the area and just lie around the lawns. I saw many female elk but no males. I made one pass through town and headed back to the dorm. On my way back I ran into that great Yellowstone tradition called a bison roadblock. The bison herd decided to move from one area to another and caused a bottleneck. You see they were moving down a road with a cliff edge on one side and the river on the other. So nothing could pass and we were moving as fast as the herd could walk.  Needless to say it took me an hour and ten minutes to go two miles. You would not believe how many cars were backed up. Eventually I made it back to the dorm for dinner.
  After dinner I decided to hike up the back of the old faithful geyser basin to a spot called lookout. It was a gradual climb to the top and about a mile hike but it was worth it. The view above the geyser basin was fantastic. The climb was two hundred feet and I can tell you my lungs were still not used to the altitude yet but it is getting there. After coming down I felt my legs had had enough for the day and I headed to the dorm for rest.
  Well thanks for reading and please keep praying for my tooth.  Take care and remember the famous mountain man call. "Go Cubs!"