Yellowstone

We began our assault on Yellowstone National Park. We entered through the South Gate and headed up to West Thumb where we saw our first geyser. We headed west toward Old Faithful and pulled into the lot at the Old Faithful Inn at about 12:30, so it seemed lunch would be appropriate. We went in and had an excellent lunch of baked brie, red pepper and smoked gouda soup, spinach salad and a veggy reuben sandwich. All was very good and the lodge is just amazing. After lunch, we watched Old Faithful go off and then walked the many boardwalks through the thermal areas. This is a really weird valley. Hot water and steam come out of the ground everywhere. They warn everybody not to walk off the boardwalks do to the danger of falling through the thermals, but buffalo pies are everywhere and right up to the geysers.
We left the Old Faithful area and proceded west to the town of West Yellowstone, Mt., where the West Gate sits. It's a little more touristy and we killed some time hoping that traffic would thin for the ride home. That worked, and we rode through a number of other thermally interesting areas on the way home. Once more got home late and didn't sit down to dinner until 9:00 pm.