Wyoming - Yellowstone National Park - day 1

We entered the park on a sunny day and headed towards the iconic spots - Fountain Paint Pots and Old Faithful.  The other tourists were plentiful, and several of the parking lots were quite full.  We managed to find a spot every where we wanted to be, so it wasn't too bad.

Unfortunately, we were at Old Faithful when the jerk wandered out onto the geyser.  It's been all over the news and social media.  He sauntered out to the hole while smoking a cigarette.  Picked up some of the alkali and put it into his pocket.  Then he laid down to look into the geyser.

There were more than just a few of us that was hoping the geyser would blow while he was out there....ok that's not really very nice of me.... but I wasn't at all displeased to see him wearing a new set of handcuffs as he was put in the sheriffs car!  He seemed pretty pleased with himself.  Not sure how he'll feel with a year in jail and a $10,000 fine!

Anyway, all that time allowed us to be really ready for the geyser when it blew!

The sun was peeking in and out of clouds all day.  Mother nature came through with some nice dark background clouds and peeks of sun.  As with a lot of things that I'd experienced either previously as and adult or as a child, the perspective is a bit different.

I was last in Yellowstone in the winter for a snowmobiling trip, that my dear friend Char talked me into.  I would have sworn that the geyser on that cold day in February 2000 was much taller than on this day.  But then, I went to Disneyland as an adult and was so disappointed to see how small the Matterhorn ride is!

We continued our journey around the park to Artist Paint Pots and other scenic lookouts.

The colors were muted due to the overcast day.  But then some of the colors just seem unreal, like the photo at the top.

The trees in the pools are called bobbie sock trees.  The chemicals in the pools clogs the 'pores' of the cambium, starving the tree of nutrients, causing it to dye.  The result is quite interesting.

I know that there were several geysers that we should have stopped at, and there were several 'hot' spots that we could have passed.  We also saw the newly active Norris Basin Geyser shooting really high while we were passing by on the road.  It was loud and big!  By the time we got tot he parking lot for the feature, it had started to decrease.  It was cool to see that it made the front page of MSN! While the geysers are pretty impressive, but we were on the hunt for animals. Check in tomorrow!