And this was taken as we were heading south towards Firehole Lake Drive. Not iffiness, rain.
Firehole Lake Drive http://tinyurl.com/kljd4cy is about halfway between Madison Junction and Old Faithful, on the opposite side of the road from Fountain Paint Pots. About half a mile in is Firehole Spring.
Great Fountain (of which much more later) and White Dome are further on, and we got to see White Dome erupt up close, I think for the first time. This is it from the road, at Firehole Spring.
And here it is up close.
Waiting for the eruption. That would be Sandi right in the middle of the picture, talking to two women about the geyser.
It bears repeating from 2012 what I consider a truism: it's very hard to do justice to these geysers in pictures, and not just because I'm strictly an amateur photographer. It's just difficult to represent the noise and the smell and the feel and especially the scale of many of the features. By the time White Dome went off it had clouded up again and I didn't catch a good one. It's much bigger than this.
From the drive we headed south to check in to our accommodations at Old Faithful. You can stay just outside of the park, in West Yellowstone, MT (west), Gardiner, MT (north), or Silver Gate and Cooke City, MT (northeast), or you can stay in a hotel or lodges at Mammoth, Old Faithful, Roosevelt, and Lake Yellowstone. We opt for the cabins that are located near all these areas, as they are cheaper, more private, and quieter. Here's what an Old Faithful Snow Lodge cabin looks like. Cute.
