Day 37: 10 miles, baby!

Yes, you read that right. Today the Kochman crew cranked out 10 miles of hiking! What the what? Rob’s watch recorded 25k+ steps, mine was 28k+ steps, so we can only imagine what the kids did today with shorter legs and less direct walking strategies.

The day started off at 6 a.m. so we could be out of the RV by 7. There was just a little wait in the pass-only lane at the entrance–it goes quick here! While driving to and through the park we listened to the audio tour of Yellowstone my friend Denice shared with us. It was filled with fascinating history, Yellowstone details, and stories of the early days OF the park. The boys wanted to keep listening, but we are trying to pace ourselves to only hear the parts we are actually doing each day.

Our first hike was five miles to Fairy Falls. On the drive there we saw a roadside bison. After seeing herds of them in Custer State Park and on our drive to and from kayaking the Snake in Jackson, we are starting to get used to this view 🙂 What’s new to us is seeing one 20 feet from the hiking trail just a half mile into our day. There was a guide behind us who just said to be quiet and walk slowly as far away as we could while staying on the trail. The bison went from rolling in the dirt to standing while we passed, but didn’t seemed fazed at all.

First stop on the hike was Grand Prismatic overlook. It was a bit steamy in the morning cold, which we heard could happen.

Fairy Falls was so pretty. The hike was very flat along a wide trail through a pine forest. The falls and stream surrounded by wildflowers at the end of the hike were so peaceful to take in.

On the walk back we gave the boys the choice to do the overlook again or just take the flat path. They both opted for flat, but once Rob said I could do the overlook on my own, they both wanted to do it. We are SO glad we did. The steam had cleared, and the view of Grand Prismatic was breathtaking. We likely passed the same bison again lying in some grass much further away from the path on the way back. Not sure how we will top this hike: super-close bison, waterfall, flowers, and a prism-colored hot spring the size of a football field.

Next stop was Old Faithful. We were all still feeling good so we opted to buy lunch (keeping the packed lunch if we stayed later) and watch Old Faithful. The timing was perfect.

After that we headed out on the five mile bike/boardwalk trail around the area after a quick stop in the Old Faithful Inn. Another random win for Verizon; I had the best cell service of the entire trip here; it was so bizarre. Rob had none with AT&T. It was super helpful to view the websites for geyser eruption predictions and interesting facts.

We were able to see the Daisy Geyser erupt, and a few other smaller ones along our route. We made it out to Morning Glory and back along the boardwalk.

At this point we were all feeling done with walking. We opted for one final geyser, Anemone Geyser, which fills, bubbles, shoots water and then sounds like a tub draining again as it recedes. To celebrate the day we ate our packed lunch and watched another Old Faithful eruption, at Cooper’s request. The plan was to get ice cream at the lodge, but it was closed, so we headed back to West Yellowstone for ice cream at the City Creamery instead.

Back at the RV it was unpacking, showers, working on the blog, making a plan for the next day, and bed for all of us. We are tired.