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Monday June 25, 2001
This day, we left the Fishing Bridge RV park at a reasonable time. The actual Fishing Bridge is right around the spot where Yellowstone Lake turns into the Yellowstone River. Today was the day of the big loop around the park and we first headed South to visit the Old Faithful area. From there we would go North to the other side of the park to visit the Mammoth Hot Springs area. The park is pretty big and some roads take more time than others. The travel times are often measured in hours, so we had a pretty full day ahead of us.
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The view from the road along the lake was great. Yesterday we drove the same road, but in the opposite direction. This time you could see the mountain range with some patches of snow near the top. Rob stopped the RV at a turn-out at the lake side which was called Pumice Point. Melissa put one foot in the water to see if it was really as cold as described in the literature - around 37 degrees Fahrenheit, 3 degrees Celsius - and from her reaction, it seemed to be pretty accurate.
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Pumice Point
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After the stop, we continued South and later, at West Thumb Geyser Basin, we turned
West. 
We
crossed the Continental Divide once and a little bit later we crossed it again. That was a
good time for a stop and a picture, since at this point there was a little natural pond
with water lilies.
Isa Lake is a little special, as water from the East side drains eventually into the
Pacific Ocean, and water from the West side flows eventually into the Atlantic Ocean,
which is exactly reverse from what would be logical. The reason is that the 
Continental
Divide curves in loop around this little lake (see the map - Isa Lake is just East
of Old Faithful), which makes the little draining streams end up at 'the wrong side'.
Isa Lake
Continental Divide
Old Faithful area
Just before Old Faithful, there is a river with a series of small waterfalls called Keppler Cascades. It was another nice photo opportunity. There was even somebody that was apparently doing a professional photo shoot with a big Hasselblad camera. Of course, we did the standard round of pictures as well.
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After we left the Keppler Cascades, the Old Faithful area and lodge became visible very soon. It was clear that Old Faithful is considered the main tourist attraction of the park, since there was an extensive traffic circulation plan with parking places around stores, restaurants, and ..... oh yes, the Old Faithful geyser! When we arrived, one of the geysers was erupting pretty high, so we were afraid we just missed it and would have to wait for at least another 76 minutes or so.
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When we checked with the visitors center we found out that Old Faithful was expected to erupt in about half an hour, so we went in the little cinema that showed a movie about the geysers and their bacteria and other inhabitants. In the books the cinema was described as a must-do to learn about the individual geysers in the area, but the movie turned out a waste of our limited time, since nothing was said about the specific geysers.
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Closer to eruption time it started to get pretty busy on the (artificial) wooden boardwalk around Old Faithful and it was even a bit difficult to get an unobstructed view with all the people around. As expected the geyser started to spray water and steam into the air pretty much at the predicted time - they don't call it Old Faithful for nothing - and lots of cameras were rolling and clicking. Although it was a great experience to observe the force of nature, this eruption was not as spectacular as expected. Especially the amount of noise the water and steam made was less than one would think.
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The eruption was over in a few minutes. Just like most of the other people, we left to
find some other things to do. Some of the people in our group were very hungry, so we
decided to go look for one of the fast food places that should be there. We were first
pointed to the Old Faithful Lodge, but it turned out that there was only a buffet line
which was very busy and overpriced. Steve and Shan already found that out the hard way,
while the rest went see that Yellowstone movie just after our arrival in the area. 
The
building was interesting to see from the outside and on the inside. It's the tallest wood
log structure in the world. There was en enormous clock hanging off a big chimney
structure in the heart of the lodge.
After the view of the inside of Old Faithful Lodge, we turned around and went to
another place, the Snow Lodge, they pointed us to. This time we had more luck. It still
took us a while to get the food after we ordered it and we had to wait for tables to free
up, but the food was pretty decent and with everybody being hungry, it worked. 
There
was a sign at the food place that also had a prediction for the next Old Faithful
eruption, so when we split up to pursue some personal interests in the area, we set the
meeting time for about 45 minutes later at the geyser.
Jerrett went to do some souvenir shopping with Grandma and Grandpa, because he wanted to do that ever since we had to pass another souvenir store earlier. The souvenirs in the store of the Snow Lodge were not exactly what they hoped to find, so a trip to a souvenir place stayed on the to-do list. At the same time, Matt and Shan were going to do some hiking on their own.
Rob
and Jennifer planned to go past Old Faithful to see if there was some more nice stuff
within reach. Coming around the corner of the visitors' center they saw a geyser of the
Angel Group erupt pretty high in the air. At the visitors center there was an earlier time
posted for the next eruption of Old Faithful. By the time they were going around the
geyser, it already erupted and this time it seemed to be more spectacular, probably
because of the different angle. 
Now the water and steam blowing away was much more
visible and it was possible to smell the sulphur in the water. At some moments they got a
bit wet from the warm mist the geyser sprayed in the air.
Behind the geyser, we had a nice view of Old Faithful Lodge, next to the natural
feature it was named after. 
The path made a sharp turn onto a little bridge
with a great scene with a river and a lot of green trees and grass, which was in sharp
contrast with the white and yellow areas around the geysers and pools.
The different groups of the family met at the walkway in front of Old Faithful at the time that we set for it before we split up and from there we proceded to the RV to continue the trip around the park.
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