The drive from the Tetons to Yellowstone was only about 45 mins. But, Yellowstone is such a massive national park, that it might take you 1-2 hours to get to your desired location.
Randy had our itinerary planned out and our first day in Yellowstone was to be spent exploring geysers and hot springs! We decided to see the famous geyser "Old Faithful" first! If you didn't know, Old Faithful spews "faithfully" approximately every 91 minutes.
I'm not sure what we were expecting, but first and foremost... it was "on time". Second, the geyser was eerily quiet as it burst forth with boiling water. Third, it was very impressive and worth seeing. (In fact, we were able to see Old Faithful erupt 3 times while we were in Yellowstone.)
After watching Old Faithful, we took a raised pedestrian trail to the surrounding hot springs and geysers near Old Faithful. Careful to remain on the raised pedestrian trail... because you could be stepping onto a "hot spot" on the ground.
Notice how everything surround the hot springs and geysers is dead. I was amazed at how desolate those areas were. And look at the geyser behind the girls... This geyser, named Giant Geyser, just boiled and splashed water continuously just waiting for the next huge eruption. However, it hasn't erupted since 2010. When it does erupt, it can erupt water up to 250 feet and for as long as 1 hour!
Another view of the amazing hot springs. Notice the raised pedestrian walkways and the desolate area around the hots springs? I guess a whole lot of nothing can grow when the only water source is full of sulphur and boiling hot!
A park ranger let the girls hold elk horns and big horn sheep horns. An elk sheds their horns each season (and the composition is like bone.) The big horn sheep keep their horns their entire life (and the composition is like fingernails/toenails.) Pretty neat stuff!
We had a great first day at Yellowstone!
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