Days 4 – 6 – After an outstanding breakfast at the hotel, we boarded the coach for our 8:00 AM departure. Today we will travel 223 miles to Yellowstone. We are more and more grateful to be on a tour. We could have never managed to see everything we’ve seen so far without an organized itinerary with a driver and a guide. We will do this again! So we drove alongside the Yellowstone River going south thru Paradise Valley into Yellowstone National Park. Established in 1872, Yellowstone became the first national park in the world. Now over 90 countries have national parks. This 2,219,766 acre park contains almost 300 geysers and over 10,000 hot springs, fumaroles and mud pots. We will be visiting both the upper an lower loop in our 3 day stay here. Elevation at Old Faithful is 7,365 feet. On our way to the hotel we saw bison, moose, elk and bears. There are wolves here as well, but we did not see any. Our guide warned us to be very cautious and not to approach wildlife. While they may appear docile, they are unpredictable and known to charge without warning. The week before we arrived, 2 guests were gored by bison and had to be airlifted out of the park. Before going to our hotel, we made a stop at Mammoth Hot Springs.
Mammoth Hot Springs is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of travertine in Yellowstone National Park adjacent to Fort Yellowstone and the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District. It was created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate (over two tons flow into Mammoth each day in a solution). Because of the huge amount of geothermal vents, travertine flourishes.
The hot water that feeds Mammoth comes from Norris Geyser Basin after traveling underground via a fault line that runs through limestone and roughly parallel to the Norris-to-Mammoth road. The limestone from rock formations along the fault is the source of the calcium carbonate. Shallow circulation along this corridor allows Norris' superheated water to slightly cool before surfacing at Mammoth, generally at about 170 °F. Algae living in the warm pools have tinted the travertine shades of brown, orange, red, and green.
We had lunch on our own in the café on the grounds, before leaving for our hotel, The Old Faithful Inn.
Lots of Elk just laying around the grounds. We kept our distance, of course. This shot taken with the zoom lens.
LOLAs we were told, the weather can be quite unpredictable here. It could be warm and sunny one minute and change to cold and wet the next. We experienced this first hand. We arrived at our hotel in a hail storm.
Above is the view out of our hotel window. Ground is covered with hail. Earlier today we were in t-shirts.
The Old Faithful Inn is a hotel located in Yellowstone National Park, with a clear view of the renowned Old Faithful Geyser. The Inn features a multi-story log lobby, flanked by long frame wings containing guest rooms.
With its spectacular log and limb lobby and massive (500-ton, 85-foot) stone fireplace, the inn is a prime example of the "Golden Age" of rustic resort architecture, a style which is also known as National Park Service Rustic. It is also unique in that it is one of the few log hotels still standing in the United States. It was the first of the great park lodges of the American west.
Initial construction was carried out over the winter of 1903-1904, largely using locally obtained materials including lodgepole pine and rhyolite stone. When the Old Faithful Inn first opened in the spring of 1904, it boasted electric lights and steam heat.
In 2007 the American Institute of Architects conducted a survey to determine the 150 favorite buildings in America; the Old Faithful Inn ranked 36. The Inn, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, is itself part of the Old Faithful Historic District.
The hotel offers tours several times a day which we did on the last day. The original wing did not have bathrooms in the room….they were down the hall. If you wanted to stay in one of the original rooms, the cost today is $108 a night. The rooms are tiny, but charming. We stayed in the West Wing which was built in 1924. These rooms did have bathrooms. Today the rate is about $200 a night double occupancy. Below is some photo’s of our room.
We enjoyed dinner in the Old Faithful Dining Room on both nights that we stayed. Very good and not too $$$$.
First night’s dinner – bison bratwurst and pheasant sausage. Yum. Second night we treated ourselves to the dinner buffet. Excellent. There were quite a few breakfast/lunch café’s on the property. Nothing to write home about. Our breakfast was included daily in the dining room. Buffet. Very good.
The Old Faithful Geyser was right across from the hotel. It went off about every 90 minutes or so, so we were able to see it several times. Always amazing.
On the second day at Yellowstone we explored the lower loop of Yellowstone Park. Mike, our enthusiastic guide from Yellowstone was also a retired teacher that had been working at Yellowstone over 30 years. He actually met his wife there and married there. We visited Norris Geyser Basin, the Yellowstone Grand Canyon, Yellowstone Falls which is twice the height of Niagara Falls.
Bison were everywhere. We had one outside our hotel window the first night. That morning he was in the parking lot. It was common to see them on the roadways. Although they look docile, we were told that they can run 35 miles per hour, so keep your distance. We saw some ignorant people taking photos at very close range. Those are the people who they will charge at. By the way, we ate Bison almost daily. We had bison chili, bison hot dogs, bison hamburgers, bison bratwurst. You know what they say, “when in Rome!”
Day 3 of Yellowstone, we left the hotel at 7:30 AM after breakfast to head to Grand Titon National Park for our Snake River Float trip and then on to Jackson Hole.
The Teton Range peaks over 12,000 feet. Scenes from the movie “Shane” were filmed here. Stopped for photo’s at Jenny Lake. Today, lunch was provided on the bus. Normally on this tour a picnic lunch is provided, but because of a detour, we had time limitations. So, a brown bag lunch on the bus was just fine. We arrived at Moose, Wyoming for our 90 minute float trip down the Snake River. We had awesome weather so we were able to do the trip.
Kos got this shot of the bald eagle! Awesome!
We arrived in Jackson Hole late afternoon and had a little time to walk around the town. Of course, we had to stop at the famous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar! Fun Fact.....During the 1940's and 1950's, gambling was prevalent in Jackson Hole. It was illegal, statewide, but Jackson's location and the relative isolation of the valley combined with its distance from Cheyenne, made law enforcement a token effort. the only deterrent was the occasional raid, and eve then, there was usually plenty of advance warning. Slot machines and crap tables mysteriously disappeared into tunnels beneath the Cowboy and Wort Hotel, and reappeared as soon as the heat was off! In the summer of 1980, the movie "Any Which Way You Can" starring Clint Eastwood, was filmed on the interior and exterior of the bar.
Arrived at our hotel for the night….The Virginian….an authentic Cowboy Hotel/Bar/Campground. Not a Hilton, but charming nevertheless.
Especially the bar. It was a Sunday night, so things were quiet but our guide told us that during the week it’s a “happening” place! All of our hotels during this trip were located in area’s where you could easily walk to stores or restaurants. Very convenient. Tonight we decided to splurge at one of the nicer places. The Gun Barrel! 
Above was the courtyard of the Virginian. Pleasant, but like I said…..not the Hilton!
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