We had a short drive to YNP, as it is only twenty miles or so north of Colter. Most of that drive is through the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, dedicated thus as he was a prime mover (and donor of land) in getting this area of the Tetons protected. Thankee, Johnny! The road in follows the Lewis River, which has some great views. It also was our introduction to the devastation wrought by the 1988 fires that burned 40% of Yellowstone.
This kind of scene is encountered frequently in the park. In many areas, but not so much here, there is substantial new growth of trees about 6 feet in height.
About ten miles into the park we came upon the Lewis Falls. I guess Clark didn’t get as much recognition, as we didn’t come across anything bearing his name. The best shot of the falls was from this metal bridge that spanned the river below the falls. Unfortunately, that sucker had a lot of flex, and every car and RV that crossed it set up a shudder that made a mess of my tripod support. I was trying to use the nifty feature of the S95 that takes three shots in rapid succession, each with a different exposure setting, then blends them into one picture, supposedly utilizing the best exposure for each area of the picture. Of course, that requires that the camera be rock steady so the three shots are of the same thing. Never did achieve perfect stillness, but it came out reasonably well. I’m not convinced that this is really useful, but I’ll experiment more in the future.
Our first two nights were to be at Grant Village, the southernmost campground in the park. It’s a no-hookups campground, so I asked the pretty young thing if she had any sites that got a lot of sun as we would prefer using our solar panel rather than our generator. Either that was music to her ears, or I’ve still got it, cause she gave us a primo spot with no one nearby, plenty of sun, and even a peekaboo view out the back of a portion of Yellowstone Lake. We got more lucky when a band of tent campers, about four sites away, who had loudly been playing their favorite music (booo), started packing up to leave. Yess! All is right with the world.
We decided not to waste the rest of the day, and unloaded the scoot for a run to Old Faithful, about 19 miles to the northwest. The road scenery here is unremarkable, except for the fact that it keeps crossing the Continental Divide at various points. The scoot laughs at altitude!
Well, maybe not laughter, but at least it doesn’t gasp. Once at Old Faithful, which is a surprisingly large and sprawling complex, we tried to follow the confusing signage to locate the geyser. They had several big map signs, with everything shown on them, but not a one had any marker saying “you are here.” Idiocy. By guess and by golly we found the right area, and parked next to . . . two matching gray Vespa 200’s! We’ve seen legions of Harleys, but no scoots until now. As we were locking up, the owners came up and we chatted awhile, trading scooter war stories. Yes, there are such things.
We shuffled off towards O.F., and people coming from that direction told us the next eruption (which now are every 90 minutes or so, down from every 45 before the earthquake) was in about 40 minutes. Even so, quite a crowd was gathering. Hey, what are all these people doing here during OUR stealth shoulder season?
Yes, folks, the Boomers are here! We decided to tour the O.F. Inn while waiting for the next show. This is, I believe, the first of the classic park lodges, and it is spectacular. It also holds some family meaning for me as my grandfather visited the Inn as a young man back around 1908. It was cool to look at something that is largely unchanged since he set eyes on it over 100 years ago. Somewhere, I have photos of it that he took with his Brownie. I’ll have to scan them and paste them here when I can locate them.
There’s a wing on the right, out of the picture, that is newer, but designed in the 1920’s by the same architect that did the original. The porch on the front also is an addition, but the main part is just like it was way back then. That’s Loni on the sidewalk. Interestingly, a couple of those upper dormer windows are fake. The “windows” don’t open into anything. No explanation why the guy designed it that way.
We took a tour conducted by a lady in period costume, and she did a nice job. Those “knees” that you see coming off the vertical poles are decorative only. They don’t provide any support function at all. The architect had his people scouring the forest for interesting and matching limbs like those, purely for artistic effect. The guest rooms in the main building are all authentic period rooms, with exposed log walls and old-style furnishings. In the 1920’s wings, the walls are plaster. The dining room is big, but I’ve been in nicer ones in other parks. It seemed a little bare bones compared with the rest of the place. We tried to get a lunch reservation but they were booked up.
Throughout the interior there is a lot of use of gnarled wood to form banisters and such. Virtually all of it is original.
The cavernous interior space of the lobby is dominated by an enormous chimney that houses four fireplaces, one on each side. A huge clock, now under repair, hangs off the side that faces most of the interior. Sorry I didn’t put a border on the photos, they seem to run into each other. The door is the interior side, and it is still the main entrance into the Inn. From the heft of the hinges, it looks like they were trying to keep the grizzlies out.
The place is not insulated, so it is shut down completely during the winter months. Sure wish I knew which room Grandad had stayed in. Outside the Inn there were a number of old tourist coaches, used to transport guests to and from the Inn and around the park. These aren’t replicas, but the real deal. I thought they were cool.
Finally, it was time for the big show, so we decided to watch it from the front porch of the Inn. Thar she blows!
O.F. isn’t the tallest geyser, nor does it put out the most volume of water; it’s fame, I guess, stems from its regularity. Other geysers have much more erratic and lengthy eruption schedules. Regularity is good for geezers and well as geysers.
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