Last day in Yellowstone

We headed to Yellowstone to do a hike right near the South Entrance.  There were 2 or 3, but they     were all closed!  So we drove up to the West Thumb area to see those geysers and stuff.  According to the map or the guide that is the most dynamic area.  We didn't see any dynamics, though.  But it was cool to see geysers in Yellowstone Lake under the water.  And they had some very pretty "pools".  

More wildlife!  These Canada Geese don't think the water's too hot.

Nice looking hot tub

There was an info station there with some hiking guides, so we bought one.  The free map given to you at the entrance doesn't really show any hikes.  We decided to do the trail to the Lone Star Geyser.  "Hike" and "trail" are kind of a stretch since it is an old road.  Apparently you could drive to it until like 1972, so it's an old paved road.  But it was a nice (5mi. out and back) walk.  We were sad to discover it's one of the few trails in the entire park you can ride bikes on since ours were like an hour away at the campground. The Lone Star Geyser is off by itself and is very predictable, with a major eruption like every 3 hours.  There is a log book there for people to record eruptions so others will know when to expect it since there is no ranger there.  There was also a page from a notepad stuck to the trailhead sign with a large bandaid where people had recorded that morning's time. So, before we set off we knew what pace we needed to go.

Pretty easy to watch for bears on this one

When we got closer to where we thought the geyser was, we saw several people leaving.  I asked one lady if we'd missed it, and she said there was a minor eruption and a major should happen within the hour.  I guess she wasn't waiting for it.  When we got to the clearing, there were quite a few groups waiting.  We saw a minor one and a lot of people cleared out thinking it was the major.  But thanks to our handy guidebook, we knew the major would last at least 30 min.  We waited probably another half hour, and then it started.  Wow! Chuck liked it better than Old Faithful due to lack of crowds, how long it lasted, etc.  The rest of us didn't really compare the two.  We left after like 15 min. because it does about a 15 min. steam phase.  

This one has a really tall cone.

Waiting for the big one!

This is it!

On the way back we met a family who told us there was a moose around the bend and across the river. Wasn't hard to find since there was another family taking pics.  Ben & Chuck took a lot of pics, until the moose started looking at them and got in the river.  Meanwhile, Zack & I were being terrorized by biting files or some other kind of bug.  I sprayed us both with bug spray, but they still swarmed us for like a 1/2 mile farther.

Ok, stop looking at me.

After that, Chuck wanted to stay longer and do more hikes, but we would've had to dry camp for a night (which our campground guy said we could do) and then get back in a campsite.  The rest of us decided we had seen enough and wanted to move on.