Day Five: Falls, and even more geysers!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

My family and I took a walk in the geyser area again to begin our day. We saw Norris Geyser, but we didn’t see it erupt. It was just steaming, but my dad made the best of it and took an interesting picture.

Afterwards we went to this really cool bubbling mud spring- which had black mud. My mom thought it was gross, but it was awesome and cool. At the end, we saw a geyser called Steamboat Geyser. I wanted very much to see it erupt, but I read that it could erupt from 4 days to 50 years apart. It was very unpredictable, most likely. I didn’t think we would get lucky, so I crossed my fingers. If we saw it, it would go 300 feet high, so I really wanted to see it. I was sure it would be my new favorite. Sadly, it was very rare to see it, so I didn’t get to see it. I already got lucky seeing Old Faithful on time, so I didn’t let it bother me!

We were walking on the boardwalk and there was a thermal area below. I was walking in the edge, like a balance beam. I wasn’t doing anything to bother anyone at all. And of course I wouldn’t fall off. So I was just walking along, minding my own business, when my dad decides to push me off. He had done this before, so I was ready for it. I told my mom about it the last time he did it, but she didn’t believe me! So this time I made sure to call my mom, and as my dad was pushing me and I was pushing him back so I didn’t fall, my mom took some pictures and acted as an eye witness. I was just glad she finally believed, so that way my dad would (hopefully) be too ashamed to do it again. Victory for me!

Today’s best event is when we saw the falls. Falls, filled with gushing water, unable to stop. Falls, pouring down the canyon side. Falls, splashing water on everyone. Falls, making rainbows. It basically sums up what they were like, but I’ll tell you the whole story. We were driving by the canyon when I saw the falls. I pointed them out to my mom, and she said they were the upper falls we were going to see. That was good, because it was quite hard to see from the car. Jasmine and I were skipping along the road happily, until we saw how steep the canyon was. It was almost straight down. From then on down, I walked slowly with my mom so I wouldn’t slip. We were walking down a zigzagging path down the side of the canyon. The colors of the canyon were so pretty, there was pink, brown, orange, red, and even green! We finally got to a lookout where we could see the falls. My mom said they were the lower falls. They were huge! They pounded down on the rock, causing water to spray up. And when the water sprayed up, it created a shimmering pretty rainbow! I watched for several minutes, amazed. It gave me energy on the way walking up (which was very steep). I noticed some not melted snow, which was shaped like a person's face. It was pretty interesting.

The walk to the upper falls was short, but the falls weren’t as pretty. We spent the rest of the day sightseeing around the beautiful canyon which was called the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I bet it was the grandest canyon so far with the roaring river below and the steep but colorful slopes. It was really cool!