Yellowstone, Wyoming

Yellowstone Time

Yellowstone National Park

Old Faithful

In 1952, Miss Ross showed an 8mm movie of Old Faithful to her second grade class. She had taken the movies while she was on summer vacation.

I guess I was as impressed as any eight year old boy could be, but I had already seen something just like her movies when my father's garden hose sprung a leak.

I also knew, by the time I was old enough to go see it, it would be out of steam. Even my mother's big old pressure cooker would eventually stop blowing steam.

Fifty Five years would go by before I would have the chance to experience an actual geyser as it happened. It was nothing like the leak in my dad's garden hose.

Old Faithful goes off about every ninety minutes and lasts from one to five minutes.

Each time it sprays, it sends from three thousand to eight thousand gallons of boiling water into the sky and will spray from one hundred to two hundred feet into the air.

Just Like Clock Work

It has not only kept working since Miss Ross saw it fifty five years ago, it continues to work almost exactly as it has for the last several hundred years.

See It For Yourself

It doesn't matter how many movies, or beautiful pictures you have seen of Old Faithful or of Yellowstone Park, it is still a little overwhelming the first time you experience the anticipation for yourself. The park ranger tells you that it will be going off within the next ten minutes or so. You stand and wait as little mini steam puffs come up. Then six minutes into the wait, she blows.

Old Faithful Geyser

I captured the following pictures by taking a picture about every thirty seconds. A picture is not like being there, but it does show the sequence

At this point there is a lot of talking and excitement by the crowd that has gathered for the next geyser that is estimated to be in the next ten minutes.

A little puff of steam and the whole croud goes silent. Even the little boy that was acting up just got quiet.

Now all you hear is the sound of the steam as it is released from its spout. It is hard to describe the sound. It is not loud like I thought it would be, but more of a rushing sound.

Nobody is saying anything and I just noticed an older man in the croud is overwhelmed and a tear is running down his cheek. Not me though, sniff, I'm tough and would never let something that exciting get, sniff, get to me.

The sound of the geyser has all but stopped and the crowd is now full of excitement as people begin to tell each other what it just did.

After Old Faithful finishes her show, people just kinda stand there like they are expecting her to do something else, or tell them it is ok to leave now.

The show is now over and the crowd is breaking up. I see new cars pulling into the parking lot and a new level of excitement as the new crowd exits their cars. Another show time in ninety more minutes.

Old Faithful Resting

Nature's Beauty

Man could never begin to duplicate the beauty that nature has given us. There are a few places that you need to visit, and I put Yellowstone up there with Carlsbad Caverns, Grand Canyon and White Sands.

As dramatic as the geyser is, and as awesome as its show is, the beauty of the water flowing over the lime formations is hard to describe. Pictures don't allow you to see the vapor that rises from the stone, or to see the beautiful colors that are as a rainbow.

And So Ends Another Day!

Map to Yellowstone, Wyoming

The Conger Street Clock Tower

This clock tower mechanism was built circa 1750 and the
pendulum is 13 feet long. It takes almost 4 seconds
for the pendulum to complete one cycle.