Old Faithful

We had impeccable timing for Old Faithful.  As we were nearing the visitor’s center we noticed the large crowd and discovered that the eruptions was “imminent.”  While we waited for a few minutes the kids worked on their junior ranger activities.  While parking in the visitor’s center parking lot we spotted a raven attempting to break into a motorcyclist’s bag.  The ranger program the other night on birds warned that the super smart ravens were frequently seen breaking into motorcyclist’s packs in parking lots.  In fact, one raven managed to open a pack, open the Ziploc bag to a sandwich and even took the onions out of the sandwich before flying away with his feast.  213 of the Earth’s geysers are in Yellowstone.  Yellowstone is actually a gigantic volcano that collapsed into a caldera.  (Does this theme sound familiar? Crater Lake, Newberry Volcano…)  The caldera of Yellowstone is forty miles wide and formed  640,000 years ago when a violent eruption emptied the volcano’s magma chamber.  Yellowstone is sitting atop an active hotspot.  Magma sits 3-5 miles below Yellowstone warming the water in the geothermal features potentially up to seven hundred degrees before the water comes to the surface. Norris is the hottest water feature in Yellowstone at 190 degrees on the surface. Even more than being hot, some pools of water in Yellowstone contain acid.  The sulfur caldron is so acidic it can dissolve flesh.  It is estimated that Old Faithful empties 4-8,000 gallons of water each time it erupts.

After Old Faithful we watched two videos on Yellowstone and visited the exhibits.  The exhibit the kids are in front of explains that the different colors of microorganisms represent different temperature tolerances.  We stopped at Lewis Lake Ranger Station to get a permit and inspection to put the canoe in Lewis Lake in Yellowstone.  The park is trying to prevent invasive species from entering the lake.  They also charged $5 for the permit.

It was a windy, but beautiful day.  As long as we were in the sun the temperature was just right.

We came across a geothermal feature.  Brooke spotted the warm water coming out of the rock.  This little rock was part of a larger rock that was sending more warm water into the lake below the surface of the water.

Lewis Lake led into Lewis River.  No boats were allowed on the river though, so we just cruised along the coast of the lake to look for wildlife.  Scott took a mini snooze while we floated along.

After an hour of being in the canoe the kids were getting restless, so we headed back to our campsite in Lewis Lake Campground.  The kids decided to take playing in the dirt up a notch.  Brooke decided to put dirt in Cody’s hair, and Cody assisted with the dirt covering by stepping on the handle end of the shovel sending up a cloud of dust.

After the kids were thoroughly covered in dirt and Scott informed them that their natural consequence was going to be a cold shower, (there were no shower facilities, so we had to use the sun shower that was not warmed at all) the kids stepped it up a with an all out dirt war.  Brooke stood under the cold shower with a determined grimace, willing herself to believe that the water wasn’t cold.  Cody, on the other, flailed like a fish out of water.  Despite a lot of scrubbing Cody still has quite a lot of small rocks in his hair.

Scott made a cake for dessert after our Taco Mac dinner, as this will probably be the last relaxed night of camping we will have on this trip.