The boys and I headed up towards Old Faithful this morning. There was some traffic due to construction, so it took a little longer than the 1.5 hours I thought it would. We finally saw our first bear! I think it was an adolescent black bear. He’s been the only bear so far that we have seen.
We saw the Crested Pool, Sawmill Geyser, Old Tardy Geyser, Churn Geyser, Grand Geyser, and Castle Geyser. We didn’t know before we arrived, but Castle Geyser was due to erupt within the hour, so we sat and waited.
It was amazing. There were a few small bursts and puffs of steam before the large eruption. It can last up to 20 minutes and goes off about every 14 hours. We only saw about 10 minutes of it before Nick got too antsy after waiting for so long and sitting in the sun. As we were driving away to make sure we made it back in time for guitar lessons, it was still erupting!
I could have sat there the entire time watching. The Yellowstone National Park Service app has a geyser eruption time prediction (+/- 45 minutes) which would have been smart of me to check beforehand. It was an amazing thing to see and I liked it better than Old Faithful. There is one side that is smooth, while the other side is a little rougher and looks like it has steps. It changes the appearance of the water flow depending on which side you view it from.
If you are up by Old Faithful, I would definitely try to time it so you can see Castle Geyser erupt. If you are by the North Entrance heading into the park, go early in the morning. The steam from the hot springs and geysers is multiplied in the cooler air and is really neat to see.