Daddy-Daughter Morning

July 10, 2002 – Yellowstone National Park

I went for another early morning geyser walk and this day Delaney went with me. We set an alarm and got up a little earlier than I had the day before. It was a little hard to wake her up, but once she was awake she was very excited.

It was an absolutely great morning. Just as we walked out of the Inn Old Faithful started erupting. We watched Old Faithful’s show, then walked up to Castle Geyser which was predicted to erupt in the next 20-30 minutes. Since it wasn’t erupting yet we walked past and saw some other geysers and springs. One geyser, officially called Sawmill Geyser, was erupting. Delaney renamed it “Rocket Geyser” and that’s what we called it for the rest of our stay.

It was cool enough that morning that we found frost on the boardwalk. Frost in July – what a strange occurrence for us Floridians.

We stayed in the Castle Geyser area until it erupted, and it was worth the wait. After watching for a while and taking several pictures, we headed up to Geyser Hill. Since Castle erupts for about an hour we were able to watch it from a distance for the rest of our walk. By the time we were ready to go in it had been an hour and a half, so it was time for Old Faithful again. We watched it one more time, then went in to find Chrissy and Aaron. I will always remember that daddy-daughter morning.

Chrissy and Aaron were up and just about ready to go. We had breakfast at the Inn again and headed out around the south loop, counter-clockwise this time. We stopped at Sulfur Caldron, Mud Volcano, and Dragon’s Mouth. These thermal features are along the Yellowstone River, where there is much more sulfur in than the other basins we visited. The hydrogen sulfide “rotten egg” smell was very strong – it smelled like money to me!

The Dragon’s Mouth was especially interesting. The spring comes out of an opening in the side of a hill – essentially a small cave. The steam rises out of the cave looking like smoke from the mouth of a dragon. The water inside gurgles and sloshes, echoing around and adding to the effect.

While we were walking around this area we got to hear part of a ranger talk. We learned why bison have a large hump on their back. They have very large vertebrae and tendons to support their large, well-insulated heads. In winter they can push through a 6-8 foot snowbank to get to the small amount of grass underneath. They will also face into the wind in winter because their front is much better insulated than their back. Fascinating animals.

We thought we would stop to see the Natural Bridge and some other sites along Yellowstone Lake on the return to the Old Faithful Inn, but the kids were tired and a little cranky so we went straight back. Once back near the Inn we stopped at a picnic area on Nez Perce Creek. We spent a couple of hours letting Delaney and Aaron play in the water. They made friends with some other kids and they all hunted rocks and splashed around together.

We eventually went back to the Inn and had our Shirley Temples and Roy Rangerses on the porch, then walked to the cafeteria at the Lodge for dinner. After dinner we had our daily ice cream, soft serve at the Lodge. (Thirteen years later Chrissy and I would get ice cream at that same counter, served to us by Delaney).  We also stopped at the gift shop to get Yellowstone shirts and a National Geographic book with spectacular pictures of sights around the park.

We hung out around the Lodge and Inn until it got dark, then drove about 5 miles away from the Inn area to get into real darkness so we could really see stars. We all just stared at the sky. The moon wasn’t out and there was no glow from man-made light. The number of stars was absolutely incredible. The contrast between thinking about the big mountains of the Tetons, the big spaces of Yellowstone, the big wildlife, and just how small it all is in the vastness of the universe really hit me. It was a great last thought before heading back to the no-TV, no-A/C paradise of the Old Faithful Inn for one final night.