FAMILY IN FLUX

Day 23 – Leaving Ruby Valley and headed through Yellowstone (Old Faithful) to Fireside Buffalo Valley RV Park right outside Grand Teton National Park

Posted on by Tara

We flew out of Ruby Valley so we could get to Yellowstone and see Old Faithful on our way to Grand Teton. The old geyser was scheduled to go off around 12:36 and boy did the old geyser deliver, they were right on time.

We entered the West Yellowstone entrance around 10:50 am. We know this because the Ranger told us to call the Old Faithful prediction number before we lost service in the park. We did and the next eruption was to happen at 10:55 am giving us approximately 90 minutes till the next approximate eruption. We arrived at the Old Faithful parking lot around 12:10 pm and since we had the trailer with us it was difficult to find two spots for the trailer/car combo. Keith (having seen Old Faithful before) dropped us off outside the visitor center and we found a spot to wait for the eruption. Talking to the audience as the geyser faked us out a few times, the anticipation of the event was almost as fun as the event itself. Little did we know Keith and Goat Dog had found parking and were standing at the closest possible dog-appropriate area to see the geyser go off. All in all a success. We got our Junior Ranger booklets but have yet to complete them (I was deputized as a Ranger to be able to swear the girls in!). The girls also enjoyed the kid’s science area where we learned all about the geysers, hot springs, and other hyperthermal events of Yellowstone National Park.

We drove through Grand Teton to get to our campground right on the outside of Moran Junction. It leaves a lot to be desired but, in the morning, there is a herd of horses that congregates pretty close to the fence. You can also see the mountains over the ranches from our campsite.

Things we did:

  • Packed up and made it out around 9 am
  • Got gas
  • Went to a rest stop but also boat dock where we walked down and stood right on the edge of the Madison River, MT
  • Saw an eagle’s nest
  • Saw bubbling rivers
  • Saw people and boats on the river fishing and waved to them
  • Saw people wading in the water to fly fish
  • Crossed into Idaho and crossed into Wyoming from Montana
  • Drove through Yellowstone National Park
  • Went to Old Faithful and saw it erupt (right on time)
  • Visited the visitor center and got our Junior Ranger booklets (yet to be completed to get the cool patches) and visited the exhibit about geysers
  • Walked the long way back to our car and got lost behind the lodge where Anna slipped and skinned her ankle
  • Went into the camper to clean and bandage said ankle (it was fine, a little scratch)
  • Drove through toward the south exit of Yellowstone planning our next gas stop (we were going to stop at Grant Village on Yellowstone Lake’s West Thumb, but Anna fell asleep in the car and then Elsa and we decided to press on.
  • We got gas right outside of the South Yellowstone Exit for $3.67 *sigh* *wince* *cha-ching!*
  • Drove through Grand Teton to get to our campsite right outside Moran Junction in Buffalo Valley (the valley is beautiful)
  • Realized a 3 year old lived nextdoor and the girls immediately latched on to this new friend (they played right outside for over an hour)
  • Walked around the campsite and saw many kind of smelly things (a moat, bathrooms, swings next to what looks like sewage, and an old gazebo-like structure that is roped off but has a lot of birds nesting in it!)

As always: Make sure you wait for the photos and captions to load below! If the photos are too small and you want to zoom in don’t forget you can Cmd+/- on a Mac or Cntl+/- on a PC to zoom in/out your browser!

Just a little photo of the camper right before we are able to leave all packed up and secured

Our drive from Ruby Valley: a beautiful rest stop at Madison River, the twists and turns of the mountain roads along the Madison River, and the anticipation of the bigger mountains around us, I believe the 2nd to the last picture is a forest fire—we saw a helicopter headed that way with a bundle of sorts) and the wildfire map lined up with this smoke billow; the final picture is of Lake Henry (which is in Idaho…we were there for about 10 miles).

Welcome to Yellowstone National Park: We were just driving through with a stop at Old Faithful. We had the trailer with us so stopping at overlooks and some side stops were difficult. The grades in these mountains were ok even though we were up to 8000 feet everything was pretty graduate and Keith is mastering the manual automatic downhill glide (not sure what he would call it). These are all shots from the car. We were moving rather slowly (35-45 depending on slowpokes) but we saw grandness—rivers, mountains, trees—the grandness strikes me. I would one day like to stop off at the Fountain Paint Pot Trail. These hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, and mud pots had beautiful colors of aqua and terracotta and were very striking even from a distance. We had fun spotting the geysers as we drove by and watching the earth “fart” (the girls thought that was the funniest because it smelled too! We did briefly see a Bison (everyone in the park was slowing to see him too) and there was construction on the bridge to get into the Old Faithful attraction area (like Disney World).

Old Faithful: We were able to see Old Faithful erupt at 12:36 pm. The 20 minutes beforehand we took some time to hypothesize how high the spout would be (“as high as the tree line”), and if water would come down from the eruption close to us (“maybe?”), if we would feel the water (“no”) if the ground would rumble (“no”). Elsa shouts, “It’s more than I hypothesized!!” <3 as Old Faithful exceeded the treeline by quite a bit. The blast lasts for 5ish minutes and for the most part (except height) her hypotheses were correct. Keith stood as far away as the last picture with Goat Dog (as far as she could go).

Old Faithful Visitor’s Center: If you look close you can see Keith and Goat Dog waving to us from outside and Keith taking a creepy photo of us from outside. The girls had a great time in the kids section and the adult section of the exhibit at the Visitor Center. A photo of the hot rivers around Old Faithful.

Driving toward the south exit of Yellowstone National Park

Driving through Grand Teton (we saw it backwards if you go this way!)

Home Sweet Home: Our new spot at Fireside Buffalo RV Park, a new friend, and this view of the sunset from our campsite

3 thoughts on “Day 23 – Leaving Ruby Valley and headed through Yellowstone (Old Faithful) to Fireside Buffalo Valley RV Park right outside Grand Teton National Park”

  1. Lousy campground–with a great view! Is that what I am hearing? I’m glad you made it to Old Faithful in time. The only time I can remember Keith seeing Old Faithful he was about 8. Seems to have made an impression on him. Yellowstone and Teton were the first Nat’l Parks we visited. We were so in awe of the scenery with the diversity of animals and terrain.

    Living vicariously at the moment!

    Reply

  2. all I can say is “coolness x 1000!” beautiful pics and so glad you saw Old Faithful erupt.

    we are at the Cape so I’m trying to catch up on a cloudy day. 🙂

    Reply

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