Chavonne Goes to Old Faithful
Yellowstone is one of the largest National Parks in the US. At 3,472 square miles, it spreads into 3 states. It has over 290 waterfalls, 10,000 hydrothermal features, 500 geysers, and over 67 species of mammals. It is the 5th most visited park in the nation, getting about 4.2 million visitors a year.
Chavonne was so excited to visit Yellowstone. There was so much to see, she wasn't sure where to start. Early on the first day she was there, she woke up, put on some layers of clothes (in the morning it was in the 40's, but by noon it was in the upper 80's) and got ready for a day of exploring. She decided that she would go to see Old Faithful and the basin that Old Faithful is in.
As we drive to Old Faithful, we spot an amazing little road that takes across a sandbar on Yellowstone Lake. Yellowstone Lake is huge!!! Covering 131 square miles, it has over 141 miles of shoreline. And it is beautifully calm in the morning.
There are very small waves that lap the shore as Chavonne sits to take a photo. The water is clear and cool, but not cold. Such a pretty way to start the morning.
There are so many things to stop and see as we go to Old Faithful that we have to pick and choose. We decide to stop at West Thumb Geyser Basin, since we see a huge thermal off to our right. The trail allows us to walk past some small springs and geysers. The steam coming off the springs is intense and has a not so pleasant smell.
As Chavonne is about to leave elk appear through the fog and steam. A mother and her baby and a stag. What a beautiful sight!
Finally after a long drive Old Faithful is in sight. Old Faithful is part of the Upper Geyser Basin which has 150 geysers in it.
Old Faithful is the most famous, partly because it is pretty predicatable as far as it's eruptions.
It erupts every 90 minutes or so. Water shoots up over 100 feet in the air for 1 to 5 minutes. Chavonne arrived just after Old Faithful erupted, so she took photos without the geyser going off.
It is still amazing to see, and later, as she waited to see another geyser go off, she did get to see Old Faithful expell some 4,000 gallons of water!
Wondering around the basin is awesome. There are so many neat little termal features. Some of the springs bubble as the super heated water comes up from within the earth.
Some of them just seap water out over their edges. And others continously steam.
Chavonne sits on the ledge near Blue Star Spring. Although it is only 6 feet deep, the cool blue color in this spring is amazing.
But don't be fooled, this spring is hot! At 192 degrees it is very dangerous.
Another feauture that Chavonne got to see was Beehive Geyser. Behive is not as predictable as Old Faithful, but it is spectacular. Chavonne had to wait almost an hour to see it erupt, which isn't bad considering the interval time between eruptions is 7 hours to a few days.
The cone of behive is four feet wide which forces the water out in a concentrated spray, kind of like a spary nozzel on a hose.
The water shoots up almost 200 feet and makes a roraing sound as it comes out. The show lasts 4 minute or so and is then done. Chavonne was so excited that she was able to see such a neat eruption on a fairly unpredictable geyser.
The rest of the day Chavonne drove through the park, stopping at random spots to take a look at things quickly. Tomorrow she is going to go to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone!
5 comments:
WOW, just WOW! What an amazing place to visit! Thank you for sharing :)
New in the world of JG, I recently discovered your blog that I love very much.
Thank you so much to Chavonne for this visit to Yellowstone :-)
To thank your Chavonne, Kyla and/or her friends (Meredith, Mikaella, Callie, Kelsey) will soon be visiting some pretty places in our region (Canada-Vermont border and near New Hampshire, and surroundings) .... if summer decides FINALLY to give us some beautiful time and no rain and thunderstorms at rehearsals!!
Sincerely,
Guyloup
That picture of the elk is just incredible, WOW is right! And Chavonne's outfit is so cute! I've been following your blog for a while, I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy it! I used your reviews to help me when I was buying my first Journey Girl, and I thought I should tell you, since you're always talking about the lack of variety in JG shoes (and I really agree), that I've found that Maplelea Dolls shoes fit JG dolls pretty well. Maplelea is a Canadian company but they put their stuff on Amazon, too. Their dolls have narrower feet than American Girl, so even though their feet are still bigger than JG feet, the shoes don't fall off like AG shoes. Maplelea dolls are also a little slimmer than AG dolls, so their clothes fit a little better on JG as well. They're expensive like AG clothes, but they're better quality. My major complaint is that their Amazon selection is very small compared to their website and the shipping costs from Canada are INSANE. Finally, I'm super excited about the new JG collection (Australia!) and can't wait to see what adventures your girls get up to next.
Stunning scenery! Looks like Chavonne had a great time and so did her photographer. Thank you for sharing.
Yellowstone is one of my favorite places in the world and I never get tired of visiting it. Your photos are wonderful and Chavonne looks really cute in them. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the story of your vacation so I'm off to read the next chapter.
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