Day 6 - More Lower Loop -- the roads less travelled

Since Day 4 we did the West side of the Lower Loop, and Day 5 was the East side... this day was to capture as much of the in between that we didn't take time to see... some of the lesser known spots.

We started by heading south, towards Old Faithful but took a turn at Firehole Falls Drive. What a marvelous surprise! Not only were there beautiful waterfalls, but we saw an Osprey up in a tree. I failed to get a picture of the Osprey but we did witness him diving from his perch upon a tree at the top of the canyon and plummet into the Firehole River to catch 2 fish. He dropped one but was successful with the other. Mmm, sushi lunch for him and a great bit of natures wonder for us.

Firehole Falls. Pretty and fresh in the morning.

Next we took in Firehole Lake Drive, another fantastic find.

What we thought would be a single geothermal turned out to be where the Fountain Geyser actually was.

Fountain Geyser is a great Fan Geyser so the mineral deposits in a terrace formation whereas Dome Geysers are more like a jet, straight up in the air. White Dome Geyser is in the distance here.

 We were able to witness the White Dome Geyser do it's thing en route as well.

We even got sprayed a little bit with water. It was awesome!!!

Many of the pools had wee little geysers in them.

From there we proceeded further south to check out the Black Sand Basin. There were many springs there as well.

This was called Canyon Geyser, I guess because it created it's own canyon type wall in to the river.

This is Black Pool, after an eruption in 1959, it's temperature raised which killed the lower temperature loving black thermophiles and now only the white, orange and blue can live in the spring.

This is Sunset Pool for the colouring of the thermophiles along the edge.

Next we went to see our friend Old Faithful again. Because of my injured left heel, I was wearing flip flops all day so no strenuous hikes today!! We found out when the next eruption was to take place, then went and had lunch. We lingered through the gift shop, found some enormous marshmallows and chocolate bars to make smores later this evening then went to find somewhere to sit to view the main event. I remembered my camera this time!!

Sorry for the heads in the way. We did not have rock star seating. We hotfooted it over to the Visitor Centre to see a short movie called Symphony of Fire about the geothermal phenomenon in the park. After that we puttered around in the gift shops looking for a specific holographic bookmark of Old Faithful that I was looking for... finally Tim saw a lady with them and asked her where she got them. Of course they were a free item in the educational section that we had yet to visit of the Visitors Centre. We finally found them and were free to go on with our days journey.

There is a very pretty spot at the Continental Divide called Isa Lake. The surface is covered in lilypads and yellow flowers. So pretty and serene. It is, by far, my favourite!

Our next stop was the West Thumb Geyser Basin. This one is neat because it is along the shore of Yellowstone Lake. Scientists have found  that the West Thumb portion of Yellowstone Lake is actually it's own caldera crater from a separate eruption more recently. This is why there are a number of geothermal phenomenon along the shore.

Emerald Pool, for obvious reasons!

Fishing Pot was under water due to high snows and rains, the lake was high.

This photo shows the springs in an almost necklace circular line. Nature likes jewelry too!

The shadows were getting longer and we were getting hungry and Tim still wanted to get over to Fishing Bridge so we decided that we would eat there and complete the eastern loop to see if more wildlife would be in the Hayden Valley nearer the evening.

We ate at the food counter/cafeteria at the Fishing Bridge Village and what a supper we had. Connor had a bacon cheeseburger that he says was to die for, Tim had a pulled pork sandwich, also very good and I chose the BBQ Brisket Sandwich which was also sublime. Everything tasted fresh and delicious. We fed our faces then got some lattes to go... the real stuff too, none of this crappy coffee... it took the guy a long time to make and the espresso was so tasty!!

We made a quick stop for a photo op on a black obsidian sand bar. The winds had whipped up the waves on Yellowstone Lake and Connor wanted to check it out. Tim showed him how to skip rocks on the calm side and I enjoyed the views and gave myself a pumice spa treatment in the rough sand.

Father and son on the shoreline

Spa-ah!!! Wait a minute, what happened to my ankles??? Dang!

Back on the road, we were hopeful to see some serious wildlife.

We called this guy "Buffalo Bob", he seemed to be walking away from the Hayden Valley but not in a hurry. Playing hard to get with the ladies methinks.

A scenic shot of the Hayden Valley. No wildlife!!

More Hayden Valley, but still no wildlife.

Elk crossing the river, far far away!!!

So much for the wildlife adventure. No matter, we were fat and fed and enjoying our vacation!! We made our way back to our campsite, readied ourselves to make smores (no small feat with enormous marshmallows) and hung out with the stars for a bit. Now it is time for me to say good night until tomorrow. Stay tuned for "Laundry and adventures in town!!"