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Tuesday June 14, 2011

We awoke in the Madison Campground in Yellowstone and ate breakfast in our own caves.  We met at 7:30 for the trek to Old Faithful and headed in that direction stopping at a few of the geyser basins along the way.  At one stop we watched an osprey doing some fly-fishing.  The one dive we watched it take did not bear fruit, or fish.   

Once at Old Faithful we went to the viewing platform where we only waited a few minutes before the geyser erupted for us.  The event didn’t seem as spectacular as it did the last time we were here.  Something shifted in the heat source several years ago and changed the eruption timing, but it is still something to behold. 

Old Faithful Geyser

After the eruption we went into the VC and got the passport book stamping taken care of.  We then made a dash across the parking lot to the General Store to the fabled penny smasher.  We smashed several and helped another couple figure out how to use the machine so they could smash a penny.

In route back to the Madison VC, we stopped at a long line of traffic, knowing there must be something going on.  There was a coyote standing not far from the side of the road intently watching a hole in the ground.The coyote was obviously waiting for breakfast to stick its head out of the hole. 

"I know you're in there"

  We, along with 40 or 50 others, took a number of photos.  The coyote was standing so still it looked like an advertisement for a taxidermist.  We left, not knowing whether or not it got breakfast.

At the Madison VC we completed the passport stamping for Yellowstone and headed out of the park. We left West Yellowstone on route 20 to Rexburg and took a right on route 33 headed for Craters of the Moon National Monument between Arco and Carey, Idaho.   After a pause at the VC to stamp passport books we ate lunch in the picnic area and took a drive through the main park loop.  There is quite a bit of work being done on the road system in the park. This was the last stop on this trip for the Flintstones and Rubbles.

The rolling caves will be parked in their more-or-less-permanent places for a while, but that is only a temporary condition.