Day 8 - Geyser Gazing Day

 We saw 3 major geysers play today. (Play is the cool word they use to say erupt). We got the estimated play times for the 6 predictable geysers and headed right to Grand Geyser. It’s the tallest predictable geyser in the world (200 ft) and plays every 6 hours, plus or minus 75 minutes. We only had one chance to see it today. We went right to Grand Geyser and sat for about 45 minutes waiting for her to come out and play. We learned how the geyser pool needs to fill up and little waves start to form in the pool before a geyser erupts. We had front row seats when she burst. It was amazing! After about 10 minutes it looked like the show was over, but she surprised us with an encore that was even more powerful. Someone told us that second eruptions only happen less than 40% of the time. It was our lucky day!

Front row at Grand Geyser

 

Grand Geyser's powerful burst

Behive Geyser put on a show

  
As soon as Grand Geyser finished her encore we heard that Beehive, a more conical geyser was about to come out to play. Beehive is as tall as Grand and is not a predictable geyser. It was about 1/4 mile away so we rushed over and caught a second spectacular sight. She didn’t disappoint. Wow what a spectacular display of Mother Nature! Old Faithful was right next door and due to come to play in about an hour, so we got some lunch at the Old Faithful Inn and sat to wait for her. She gave us several false starts but then she stayed out for about 6 minutes.

We couldn't get any closer to Old Faithful. This is her starting to sputter. She sputters into a giant plume versus bursting into a plume like Beehive and Grand

We couldn't miss Grand Prismatic Spring with its beautiful colors. We did the short hike to the overlook after seeing it up close. We saw lots of smelly hot springs, too.

We moved to new digs tonight in West Yellowstone, the Dude and Roundup Motel. Nothing fancy, but clean and convenient to the park and to places to eat. Thrilled to see that Coco Gauf won the US Tennis Open today!