opening day

Friday was opening day. While day-trippers have been trickling in to Old Faithful, the Snow Lodge opened for guests at 11 a.m. yesterday and the season has officially kicked off. The snowcoaches were all lined up in the morning, ready to transport guests into the park.

In the winter, the only way in to Old Faithful is on one of these vehicles, which will bring you in from Mammoth (north), West Yellowstone (west), or Flagg Ranch/Jackson Hole (south).

This also meant our first day of work: our hours are 3 - 9 p.m., with Tuesday's and Wednesday's off. That leaves us most of the daylight hours to do whatever we want, and for me, that's being outside. After last night's ski disaster we decided to stick with our trusty snowshoes, and we took a short tour of the geyser basins around Old Faithful.


For Steve it meant hiking along a river he can't fish. I could've posted several shots of him peering sadly into the river, looking for fish, but that would just be...mean.


We've never been "geyser gazers," and we normally avoid the crowds at Old Faithful at all costs in the summer, so this is one of the first time we've really explored this area. And since we have it all to ourselves (we didn't see anyone else while we were out), you're able to really here all of the gurgling and bubbling that each one emits.



As we were headed back to lunch we had a clear view of Old Faithful erupting in the distance


As we came around the bend to Old Faithful the single coyote we had seen on Thursday can running up through the snow and walked right along the geyser rim. I was tempted to follow him, around to the other side, but we were in a hurry to get to lunch and Steve mentioned something about my having enough coyote pics.

We went to work at 3 p.m. and chatted with the few guests that arrived, and then we were off at 6:45 p.m. on the Steam & Stars tour. We traveled, by guided snowcoach, to the Fountain Paint Pots and walked around the geyser basin with flashlights in order to see and hear them. With all of the snow on the ground it was brighter than we expected, even with the flashlights turned off. Our guide also pointed out (via flashlight) remnants old park roads and old hotels, and then we had chocolate as we listened to the roar (and the quiet) of Kepler Cascades.