I was reminded again of why I don't go on vacation with my mother. She woke us up at 6:30am park time so we could go out and see the animals! I grew up in Alaska around most of the animals that live here in the park, it doesn't excite me so much that I want to get out of bed at that early to go find them. My body still feels like it's on Oregon time and the sun hasn't even come up there yet. Mom's plan was to drive all the park today and make the huge circuit between all the different visitor centers and sights. We enjoyed a quick breakfast of Go-Gurt, banana, and granola bar?! We came across a black bear beside the road along with a female Park Ranger trying to keep all the people in their cars and not parked in the middle of the road since it was on a downhill corner.
Next up was a large male bison walking down the road in our lane. They look pretty mangy this time of year with their winter coats in mats and dangling off them. Erika and Mia got an activity book at dinner last night and one of the activities is to collect free stickers at 4 out of 5 lodge/visitor centers in the park. We collected the first sticker here at the Roosevelt lodge gift shop. We stopped at Tower Falls and walked down as far as we could but we weren't able to see anything from the bottom due to trail construction.
At the Canyon Lodge, we collected the second sticker along with some purchases. I got Mia a pair of lab created opal heart shaped earrings since she's been without for a few months. Each of the girls picked out a Yellowstone patch for me to iron onto their backpacks and I got a sticker to put in my scrapbook. We made a few more stops along our way at the South Rim and vista sights. And then we got cell phone reception and our phones started beeping away with messages, I had 13 in all. Mia had already fallen asleep but I called to say hi to my sweetie and check in on him.
Our second to last stop of the day was at Old Faithful. We arrived about an hour before it was set to erupt so we had lunch in the parking lot. I treated us to an ice cream in the lodge and that single scoop in a dish was HUGE! The workers must not have been very well trained because the single scoop overflowed the dish and each one was different sized from one customer to the next. And I got a scoop of Pecan Praline instead of Peanut Butter Chip but I was hungry and not in the mood to get back in line to correct their mistake.
We only had to wait around 10-15 minutes for the geyser to start the show. It was interesting to learn how they calculate the approximate time that the geyser will erupt again. If the eruption lasts less than 2.5 minutes, it will erupt in approximately 60 minutes. If the eruption lasts longer than 2.5 minutes, it will erupt in approximately 93 minutes, very interesting fact. After the eruption, we walked over to the original Lodge and it was just beautiful.
It is several stories tall and the insides are covered in thousands of small poles. We got our smashed pennies in the gift store along with a story book about a crippled bear written by the author who was in the lobby so the girls were able to get their book autographed.
The new Old Faithful Visitor Center had recently opened up so we went to explore it. They opened up a children's section called the Young Scientist and there was a ranger inside setting up a table with information on how to become a Junior Ranger or Young Scientist. Even though Erika earned her Junior Ranger badge last year, she got the one with a wolf print for the 5-7 year old group and this year she could do it all over again and earn the Junior Ranger badge with a bear print on it for the 8-12 year old group.
So we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to help her complete all of the necessary activities in the book and then race across the park to attend a Ranger presentation back at Canyon Lodge so she could complete that requirement as well. Then it was back to the cabin for dinner and relaxation.
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