Day: July 1, 2017

Pic: Check my shirt. Old Faithful, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone NP, WY

A million years ago, my mom bought me a t-shirt bearing a witty double entendre: “Old Faithful BLOWS 16 times daily”. Today, that shirt fulfilled its destiny.

“Did anyone ask you about it?” my mom inquired when I sent her this picture. Even though I wore it all day, all around Old Faithful, the only person who commented was the woman I asked to take this photo. This is what she said: “Hey, you’ve got an Old Faithful shirt!”

As I sat and waited for the obligatory Old Faithful viewing (which, to be fair, was definitely impressive and worth the stop), I noticed that a lot of folks had brought their 2-8 year old children to see the geyser. Even in a world without pocket-sized supercomputers and on-demand high-definition media, this seemed like a hard sell: let’s sit here quietly and stare at a plume of steam for five or ten or twenty-five minutes until a kinda cool thing happens for three minutes and then it’s just over. No thanks, mom.

Pic: Morning Glory Pool. Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone NP, WY

Pic: Daisy Geyser. Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone NP, WY

The govenment organizations responsible for our public lands aren’t always the most tech-savvy. The National Park Service makes a valiant effort, however, to communicate estimated geyser eruption times. In addition to whiteboards in ranger stations and near popular geysers, a telephone number with a recorded message, and links to geysertimes.org, the park service also provides information via that quintessentialy 2010s mechanism: a smartphone app.

Through a combination of these methods, I learned that Daisy Geyser was scheduled to erupt while I was nearby. A twenty minute wait yielded a fine geyser performance in a more intimate setting than I expected with Daisy’s more famous cousin down the road.

Pic: Sapphire Pool. Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone NP, WY

The beauty of sleeping at Mallard Lake was that an 11 mile loop would allow me to explore Biscuit Basin, Midway Geyser Basin, and Upper Geyser Basin at my leisure before returning to the lake for night two. Instead of worrying about parking spots and traffic, I could focus on hiding from thunderstorms and getting back to the tent in time to make ramen before dark.

But seriously folks, this three-mile-long section of the park boasts so many geological peculiarities that the best way to appreciate it is on foot. Having somewhere nearby to sleep was just icing on the geothermal cake.