Yellowstone 2025- Day Two - the Lower Loop Road

 Here is the second day of our trip to Yellowstone. I'm going to be honest here, we are going to kind of blow through this day. Because the really interesting part happens at the end. And that's the story I'm looking forward to telling. 

But I do want to document this day because there was some cool stuff that happened (it just kind of got eclipsed by the disastrous things that happened later.)

We survived the very cold night in our tent. I got up and started making breakfast. We had everything to make egg and sausage sandwiches. We also had things like orange juice, hot chocolate, yogurt, and oatmeal. The kids gradually got up and ate. 

Then we got ready for the rest of the day. We were going to drive the whole Lower Loop road. We planned to be gone the whole day. So we put all our food in the car to have with us all day. 

Around 9:00 we started driving. We drove south. We passed all the parking lots for the geysers areas that we'd visited the night before. The kids were like, "Oh wow, do you see all the people!" And "wow those parking lots are full!"

Our first stop for the day was the Old Faithful area. The parking lot at Old Faithful is HUGE so you can pretty much always find a parking spot there even when other parts of the park are crowded. Our trick is to stay to the right as we drive into the parking area. It curves around and will lead to a little parking area by the Old Faithful Lodge. There's shade here so it's better than the shadeless big parking lot. 

We stuffed snacks into our water backpacks and got ready for a few hours spent in the Upper Geyser Basin AKA Old Faithful area. The first stop was the Lodge so we could read the sign that said when we could expect Old Faithful to erupt. It said it was expected within the next 10 minutes. 

So we went outside and within like 2 minutes we saw Old Faithful Erupt. 

That was an excellent way to start the day. 

And then it was kind of downhill from there. I think we used up all our geyser viewing energy on Friday. Nothing was really that cool to look at and the weather wasn't exactly cool either. It was sunnier and hotter than Friday. I was getting some serious Norris vibes from the whole thing. 

So we spent some time trying to feel better about things while walking around on the boardwalk. 

Me and Derrick trying to have fun. 

This was the Lion Group.

I'm not sure why I took this - maybe because we could see the inn across the river. 

My original plan for the morning had been to walk all over the Upper Geyser Basin and maybe make it all the way to Morning Glory Pool. Derrick and I had talked about this plan before the trip. But Charlotte wanted to go up to the Observation Area on the hill and watch Old Faithful erupt again. So after walking around the geyser area for a bit we took the back trail to that observation area. Honestly this was probably a better plan because the woods were shady. 

Our first stop was Solidary Geyser. 

The sign said that it would erupt every 5 to 7 minutes so we set a timer and sat down to wait and eat snacks. 

We waited about 15 minute and never saw an eruption so we kept going on the trail. We made it up to the observation area. 

The kids used the fence as seats while they waited for the next eruption. 

After about 15 minutes (and more snacks) we saw steam start coming from Old Faithful. 

And we were able to watch the eruption for a second time. 

Then we hiked back down the trail. Here I am hiking down. 

I'm really slow hiking down so everyone was far ahead of me. I could see them on the bridge over the Fire Hole River. 

We went back to the Lodge and checked out the gift shop. I bought a Fridge Magnet, and a license plate that said Yellowstone. Veronica bought a bunch of shiny rocks. Charlotte bought a stuffed fox. 

Then we walked to see some of the other buildings. The kids liked this teepee. 

We went into the visitor center and I went to talk to the rangers to find out if they knew when we could expect an eruption at Great Fountain Geyser. The board didn't have a time listed. The ranger said it was in an unpredictable cycle so there was no way to know. Bummer. 

Brandon and the kids were looking at some of the displays. That bench that Lydia is laying on was the BEST part of the whole visitor center. 

We also checked out the gift shop. Lydia found a patch she liked and I found another fridge magnet. 

Then we went to the Old Faithful Inn. This building is so cool. 

I always love going in here. 

We went to the second floor and sat on the observation deck and watched the last bit of Old Faithful erupting again. I've always wanted to watch an eruption from here. 

So it was fun to finally do that. 

Here's Charlotte looking sad that she couldn't go higher on the cool staircase. 

I told her to become and employee here. I have a friend who was an employee who once shared a picture of her on the roof of the Old Faithful Inn. 

One final look at the chimney. 

And for some reason I took a picture of the door. I think I wanted to do this on our front door, but now that I'm home I don't want to do that. 

Derrick was excited to see one of the Yellow Buses in front of the Inn. 

We walked back to our car and got ready to go. Our next stop was the Old Faithful gas station. I thought we'd been here before, but nothing about it felt familiar. We could see Castle Geyser from the gas station. We were able to see it steaming. So that was a nice last geyser to see. 

We left the Old Faithful area and headed East. We drove through a lot of pine trees and over the continental divide. Then we came to Yellowstone Lake. We could have stopped at the West Thumb geyser area, but I knew it would be to crowded (and we were all geysered out.)

We drove north along the shore of the lake to the Fishing Bridge area. There is a little Visitor Center on the edge of the Lake. We went through that building and out onto the beach. 

Derrick had been talking about swimming in Yellowstone lake for a long time. So he went right to the water to check how warm it was. He said it was warm enough so he and I went back to the car to get his swim suit. 

We went to the bathrooms and he changed. Then we walked back. 

He went out to the water and started getting used to it. I'd been telling him it would be too cold, but he told me it was okay. 

Here are Charlotte and Veronica in the sand. Lydia needed a break from hanging out with everyone so she was taking a nap in the car. A little later Charlotte and Brandon went on a long walk along the shore.  

Derrick got deeper into the water. I was impressed he was staying out there. 

I took my boots off and enjoyed putting my feet in the sand. 

Derrick kept getting used to the water. He went out deeper and deeper. Then he dunked his head under water really fast and ran out.  

He was so proud of himself for going all the way under water. 

Lydia joined us. 

Somewhere far down the shore are Charlotte and Brandon. 

Lydia and Veronica went down the beach to meet up with Brandon and Charlotte. I took Derrick back to the bathroom so he could change. Then we sat in the car and let his swimming stuff dry in the windows. 

Brandon came back with the kids. They showed me the cool stuff they'd found. 

Charlotte found a rock in every color of the rainbow. 

She also liked the smooth rocks. 

More of her finds. 

There were picnic tables by the visitor center so we got out the camp stove and heated up chili. We had the chili with freetos and cheese. 

It was kind of funny to just be eating on the side of the parking lot. But this was a good way to get dinner while waiting for 5 o'clock to roll around. Everyone else would be leaving the park to find dinner, but we would be ready for more sight seeing. 

When we did start driving we headed north toward the Mud Volcano area. Before we got up there we were in a small traffic jam. It was actually a bear jam. There were two grizzly bears on a nearby hill. 

We were lucky to get a parking spot in a pull out so we could watch the bears for a while. 

You can see them here - kind of. They look like rocks. 

Here's Charlotte looking at the with binoculars.

And Derrick and Brandon.

Then we kept driving and made it to Mud Volcano. We first went to the Dragon's Lair. 

I've always liked this cave with sloshy mud inside. 

We attempted a family picture. I told myself we'd get a better one later . . . but this turned out being the best we got. 

Here's the mud volcano. It was nice and sloshy since there was lots of spring runoff making everything wet. 

The area between boardwalks was also really wet and full of bubbles and things. 

This area was cool too. I'm glad all this lower stuff was so cool looking because we had no interest in going up the hill to see what was up there. 

Then we kept driving north and made it to the Canyon area. This is where the waterfalls are. We drove to Artist Point and got out to look at the waterfall from this view point. It was so pretty and I was really looking forward to seeing the waterfall from all the different view points. 

BUTTTTT that wasn't happening on this day. 

When we went back to our car I got in the drivers seat. I turned on the car and tried to reverse, but the car had no power. I could get it to reverse at all. 

And that's where we are going to end the story for now. The next post will be ALL about our car adventure.