When we got to the South Entrance of Yellowstone, we stopped at the Snake River Ranger Station to grab a Yellowstone fishing license and ask a few questions.
Once we took care of business, we headed towards Kepler Cascades. On the way we stopped to check out Lewis Falls where we took a few quick pictures and moved on. Kepler Cascades is a waterfall on the upper section of the Firehole River. It's a beautiful waterfall, but it is also a barrier to fish migration separated the browns and rainbows in the lower part of the Firehole River from brook trout in the upper part of the river. After seeing the cascades, we walked upstream of the falls a bit so I could fish the Firehole. I only fished for a few minutes and had one brook trout leap out of the water anxiously trying to eat the fly. It was so overeager that it completely missed the fly.
From Kepler Cascades it was off to the Old Faithful Visitor Center. We got the geysers schedule and then went to get seats for Old Faithfuls next eruption. While we were waiting for Old Faithful to blow, we saw another geyser off in the distance blow. Old Faithful blew with an eruption of steam and water blowing thirty or forty feet in the air. Seeing the earth shoot steaming water out of the ground is a really unique and interesting phenomena to observe. It reminds you that the planet is alive and constantly changing.
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| Geyser that blew off in the distance while we we waiting for Old Faithful |
After Old Faithful blew, we had a few hours before the next predicted geyser eruption so we hit the road for West Yellowstone to get some lunch and go to the fly shop. We ate lunch a hokey place called Buckaroo Bill's BBQ Grill. The food was as good as the decor was hokey. The BBQ Beef, bison burger,and huckleberry soda were outstanding.
After lunch, we went to the Blue Ribbon Flies. I grabbed a handful of flies and pocket full of advice before we hit the road for the the park. I get in the car and can't find the keys. I get out and open the door to the back seat to see if I left the keys there as I was putting some gear in the back seat. The first thing I notice is the top two inches of my fly rod drop to my feet. F*CK! I must have slammed the tip in the door. I found the keys and got us going. I was angry at myself, but it was not totally devastating. The rod has a lifetime warranty and I had spare rod in the trunk. Breaking a rod is never a good thing, but this was manageable. I just moved on with the day and figured I deal with the rod when I got home. Bringing the spare rod was the best decision I made when I was preparing for this trip. I almost left the spare rod at home because I had to buy a new rod case to accommodate both rods before the trip. Spending the extra $50.00 on the case saved me from spending $200.00 - $300.00 on a new rod.
On the way back towards the geysers we drove through Firehole Canyon drive, and then stopped at Lower Geyser Basin where we saw the Fountain Paint Pot and some other geothermal features. We got lucky and saw another geyser eruption. Then it was back to the Old Faithful area where had to walk a way to get to Riverside Geyser that was predicted to erupt soon.
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| Firehole Canyon Drive |
We thought we could park closer to Riverside than was possible. We parked with about ten minutes until the predicted eruption time. It took us twenty minutes to walk down to Riverside. We got lucky and got there five minutes before it erupted. It blew for twenty minutes, and while it was going the mist generated from the eruption formed rainbows!
When Riverside was over we walked around the back side of the upper geyser basin and just happened to get to Grand Geyser when it was about to blow. One of the volunteer geyser watchers was observing and suggested we stay as he pointed out the water flowing over the lip of the geyser and said it would be any minute. He was right, Grand blew, and its neighboring geysers Turban and Vent blew as well. It was a pretty cool experience to see three geyser blow at once forming a giant rainbow.
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| Vent is on the left shooting a thin stream on an angle, Turban is the small boiling and splashing geyser in the middle,and Grand is the huge explosive geyser on the right |
After the geysers we headed to the middle geyser basin area to see Grand Prismatic hot spring, which was bit of a disappointment because it was so big you couldn't get a good look at it. From there it was off to fish Nez Pierce Creek for a few minutes before going to check into at Yellowstone Lake Hotel. Once we were checked in, we sat down for dinner and then went back to the room to settle in for the night.
There were some fishing closures due to warm water. The Firehole river below Kepler Cascades, the Madison, and Gibbon were all closed. It was kind of disappointing because I had planned to fish the lower Firehole, and the Madison in the Montana portion of the Park.
