Yellowstone Part 1

Before our annual trip to Canada Jensen and I went to Yellowstone to spend a few days with Suzanne and Jordan.  Jensen had never been before and I haven't been since I was 10.  Dunken has never been either. ;)  We left on a Thursday after Jensen got home from work and arrived in Yellowstone at 2am.  The drive there was pretty rough.  Dunken cried for about two hours and finally fell asleep at his usual bed time and slept until we got there. 

The first place we stopped was West Thumb Geyser basin.  We could see the steam from the road and Jensen was so excited we had to stop and check it out.

The Black Pool was actually a really pretty blue, not black.  When the pool got it's name it was a really dark green, almost black.  It used to be much cooler so bacteria was able to grow and combined with the blue water the orange bacteria turned the pool the dark color. In the early 90s it heated up killing the bacteria.

I think the picture above is Abyss pool.  It's 53 feet deep and in the late 80s/early 90s it erupted a few times between 30 feet and 100 feet into the air!

After West Thumb Geyser basin we got to the Continental Divide.  One side of the river on the continental divide flows to the Atlantic Ocean and the other side to the Pacific!

Next stop Upper Geyser basin.  Here we are waiting for Old Faithful.

There she blows!

I'm not sure what this one is called but it was a little bubbling pool near Old Faithful.

After watching Old Faithful and checking out the shops nearby we went to  both Biscuit Basin and Black Sand Basin.  The photo below is Sunset Lake.

I forgot Dunken's backpack carrier and we didn't have room for his stroller, so the poor little guy had to be carried around everywhere. He was such a good sport about it though.

The photos above is Sapphire pool.  I think the blue pools were my favorite.  There was a ton of them at different spots so after a while they all start to look the same, but they're so pretty!

The next stop was Midway Geyser Basin.

My mom and Rick also came up from Twin Falls and met us halfway through our first day in Yellowstone. We are all standing by Excelsior Geyser. In the late 1800s this erupted frequently about 100 feet high.

Next we drove through an area with a few more pools.  I can't remember what that area was called, but I'll add it here once I find out.  We were all getting pretty tired so we didn't get out much there.  We mostly just stopped by the pools and stayed in the car to look at them. First though I wanted a picture in all the trees. :)

I hope I didn't bore you all with the names and facts of all the places we went, but I wanted to make a note of them so I wouldn't forget!