We woke up to POURING rain on our third day in Yellowstone. We decided to go out for a nice breakfast since the weather was crummy and we were waiting to hear from the cousins about what they wanted to do that day, plus the condo gave us a coupon. We went to a nice country-style place in West Yellowstone just a few blocks from our condo and enjoyed a warm and delicious breakfast!
We talked to the cousins and their vote for the day was to come to our condo after lunch and swim and play games and eat dinner. Sounded good to us! The rain was letting up a little, so we decided that in the meantime we would drive to Norris Geyser Basin since our friendly Lynden Park Ranger mentioned that it was an “often over-looked gem” in Yellowstone. Well, it was cool, but I don’t think it was at all overlooked!! The parking lot was SO crazy crowded and we circled around looking for a spot. Finally the girls & I got out and figured that once Ed found a spot we would meet up with him because we had been told it was a quick boardwalk loop. Once the girls & I got up to the boardwalk, however, we discovered that there were a total of THREE boardwalk loops. How would Ed find us? Cell service was non-existent. I walked a little ways down one loop, then left the girls to continue that loop with instructions to meet us on the other one. I went back to the parking lot, found the van, parked, but no Ed! Finally on my way back to the loop, I saw Ed walking up ahead. Not sure how we missed each other, but now at least we were together. We went to where I thought we were meeting the girls…but they were nowhere to be found. We waited and walked and waited and walked…for about 20 minutes and still no sign of them! Just when I was starting to think it just might be possible that ALL FOUR of them fell into a geyser and no one else saw…they appeared around the bend of the first loop! They had spent ALL of that time meandering around the geysers! Apparently when I said, “Hurry, but take lots of pictures!” the only part they heard was “…take lots of pictures!”
That is Steamboat Geyser, which erupts very irregularly. It erupted last July and then again soon after we left! Crazy!
We quick walked through the rest of the Norris Geyser Basin and then headed back to our condo for lunch and swimming with the cousins! The kids and adults all swam and chatted in the hot tub for about 3 hours, then it was game time and play time. During the time we were swimming, the rain was coming down so hard we could hear it from inside the pool room! It was a good time to just play with the cousins. We had dinner and then they headed back to their trailer to get a good night’s sleep before our big hike on our last day together.
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