Tour of Yellowstone - Norris & Old Faithful

Mike knows the area by heart. He takes many groups on tours and hardly realises that he is driving through one of the most beautiful places on earth.

While we tried to listen to Dave's comments on the evolution of the park, we watched out for wildlife and we were lucky: Canada geese, Trumpeter swans, a coyote (for sure), a wolf (perhaps), several impressive bisons near the road, a pelican, ground squirrels, some female elk and a bull, deer, ... they all let us have a glimpse.

Spotting them from the bus caused some excitement - in some more than in others - but I still feel it doesn't compare to meeting them when you're on foot, on equal grounds.

Our first stop was at Norris geyser basin. Here, the geothermal activity of the park takes place before your very eyes. Many boiling wells and geysers bubble and spurt. The Steamboat geyser is impredictable and when it blows, it can go much higher than any other in the Park. We watched the steam come out the holes in the ground and couldn't help wondering if it would explode there and then, next week or in a year or so...

The scenery has something unearthy, lunary, dreamlike. The colours of the soil, of the water in the pools varies from dark rusty to pale aquamarine blue. The many hues and shades change with the rhythm of the clouds floating past. It is a spectacle one must see to understand. Photos may help you to imagine, but the sounds of the hissing water, the smell of sulphur cannot be captured on paper or on a webpage.

After this first confrontation, we were ready for the big tourist attraction of the park: Old Faithful. This geyser deserves its name because it can be predicted when it will blow. We only had to wait a couple of minutes - together with a huge crowd assembled around the mound - before we witnessed the explosion. First Old Faithful teased us a little, blowing little clouds and going off a tiny bit, but then up it went higher and higher up in the sky till we felt the spray on our faces ... Happy to have witnessed this natural feature that has been taking place for centuries already, we speculated on the future of the craters and geysers. Will the plumbing system connecting the different pots and holes one day give way and what will happen then...