On Monday morning, our group jumped in two cars and headed to Yellowstone’s south entrance, which is approximately two hours from Wilson, WY where we’re staying.  Along the way, we enjoyed the amazing early sun on the Grand Teton mountains.

Throughout our drive, when we saw a number of cars pulled over, we knew there was some wildlife hanging out nearby.  On our drive to the parks, we saw elk and bison.  Here’s an elk hanging out in the tall grass (a female elk and baby elk were not too far away as well).  Thanks to Yellowstone or Teton’s newsletter, we learned that elk can dive up to 18 feet to get food in the water!

After a gorgeous drive through Grand Teton, we arrived at Yellowstone, which is HUGE! It’s the first U.S. national park and is the largest in the continental U.S. – the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined, and is located in three states – Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana.  There’s no way to really cover the whole park in one day (or even a week) so we made our way to Old Faithful as our first stop with a few more picked out for the day and others hopefully for a trip later in the week.

After arriving at the Old Faithful area, we headed into the Visitor Center where we would be able to find out when the next geyser eruption prediction would be.

The next geyser was predicted to be about 40 minutes after we arrived so we explored the displays inside before heading out to the boardwalk benches for the show.  The prediction is given with a +/- 10 minute window so we had a bit of time to wait but the weather was sunny and starting to warm a bit.  After some chatting, she erupted for us.  At first it seemed small and then the real Old Faithful we expected showed her power.

After the eruption, we headed over to the Old Faithful Inn to explore and have some lunch in the restaurant.  The Inn was built at the turn of the century and is the largest log hotel in the world (and possibly the largest log building).

The lobby is multiple stories tall and includes a fireplace that is that tall.

After a short bit of exploring, we headed to the dining room for some lunch.

I ordered the Roasted Red Pepper Gouda soup which was SO good.  It was warm, flavorful and you could taste the bits of gouda in it.  A very impressive combination.

The Husband ordered the sweet potato fries appetizer and shared it with the table.  Another winning item from the menu.

For lunch, most of us ordered the Elk burger.  I chose mine with cheddar and mushrooms.  While the mushrooms were very good, in general I was unimpressed with the elk (as was most of the table).  However, having local meat is definitely at the top of the list of foods to try when traveling so we’re glad we ordered it.

The Husband on the other hand went with the Black Bean burger which he enjoyed.

The food and service were good and we were then fueled up for some walking/hiking around the geysers and hot springs.

First, there was a bison feeding in the pasture, coincidentally next to the DANGER! sign

The geysers and hot springs were beautiful and fascinating to walk along.

I split off from the group about halfway through and watched Old Faithful again, this time catching a rainbow in the mist.

After Old Faithful, we decided to head north to Gibbon’s Falls, the only waterfall we got to see on this day’s visit.

We then headed south toward the Grand Prismatic Spring at the Midway Geyser Basin.  First, though, we came upon a herd of pronghorn.

Our last stop of the day brought rain and rainbows along with more geysers and hot springs.

On the way home, we saw more elk and pronghorns but were too tired to stop.  It was a jam packed day filled with lots of nature and photography.  It was beautiful and I’m so glad we’re here!