Today started out rainy, as we headed towards the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and as the elevation rose the rain turned to snow. The school’s minivan decided it wasn’t going to make the climb and we had to turn around. We headed back to Mammoth Hot Springs and had the opportunity to wander around the gift shop and visitors center.

We decided to try to see the other “must sees” in the park and headed south to Old Faithful. On the way there we saw 5 mule deer and a coyote. The other van was a fifteen minutes ahead of us and were lucky enough to see some of the Wapiti wolves on the way there. By the time we arrived, the wolves were out of sight, but there was a large crowd of people wanting to see them.

We wandered around Old Faithful to kill some time before the eruption. The eruption was sort of anticlimactic. The white sky made the steam and water hard to see. We then headed to Grand Prismatic and walked the boardwalk around the hot spring. We caught a break in the clouds and hiked up to the overlook. The view and colors from up top were much better than down at the bottom.

After the overlook, we headed to the Fountain Paint Pots. There we walked around the boardwalk and got very lucky. The Fountain Geyser and Clepsydra Geyser were erupting continuously for over 10 minutes. The Jet Geyser on the other side of the boardwalk from the other two was erupting short bursts every couple of minutes as well. It was so cool to be surrounded by erupting geysers. This area was much more exciting than watching Old Faithful in my opinion. We then headed back to Gardiner and saw a very vibrant rainbow on the way back. It was a good way to end the trip.