Two much in two days: Writer wishes he'd allowed more time to take in a geyser of sights

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - It was early evening when I approached Old Faithful for the first time _ just after an eruption.

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Should I wait for the next one or keep going? Plenty of daylight remained, but my hotel was still 35 miles away.

If I hadn't realized it before, the grand size of Yellowstone National Park suddenly became very real.

At more than 3,400 square miles, Yellowstone is larger than Delaware. I wouldn't be foolish enough to explore all of Delaware in two days. Yet here I was in the nation's premier national park, a paradise teeming with wildlife, waterfalls and powerful geysers. I couldn't waste a minute.

In my hotel room I pulled out guides and a map to narrow the plan of attack. In the central part of the park, the map showed roads forming a figure 8. Simple enough: I'd hit the lower half of the "8" the first day, taking in Old Faithful and Yellowstone Lake. The next day I'd loop north, where I could find Mammoth Hot Springs and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. That would leave plenty of time for wildlife viewing.

But I was right to be overwhelmed by the enormity of Yellowstone.

The plan worked perfectly until just after I entered the park early the next morning.

That's when I noticed a few SUVs and motorcycles that had pulled into a turnout on U.S. 20 along the Madison River. Several elk were feeding in the grass near the water's edge. I didn't want to miss that, so I parked, shot a few pictures and appreciated the scenery.

A few hundred yards farther, more cars were pulled over. Two buffalo were grazing by the side of the road.

Next I spied two more elk lying in the tall grass close to Mount Haynes. There went a few more minutes.

Not that I didn't appreciate every animal, but I wanted to be at Old Faithful by lunchtime. So of course I detoured when I saw the sign announcing Firehole Canyon and got out a couple of times on the drive to water cascading into the roaring Firehole River.

Then my sightseeing really began to threaten the schedule.

Thin white plumes of steam rose in the distance as I turned the car south toward Old Faithful, still a dozen miles or so away. Geysers!

What I hadn't counted on, as I followed the vapors, was how quickly I would become mesmerized by the hot pools and thermal features that are so synonymous with Yellowstone. The park counts 10,000 of these, including perhaps 500 geysers _ more than anywhere else on Earth, the National Park Service says.

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At Nez Perce Creek, a little pool bubbled and churned. On a cool September morning, it looked inviting and warm, but I knew it was dangerously hot. A few steps away, the rising steam at Ojo Caliente spring was accompanied by a strong sulfur smell. Signs warned that the crust near the spring was thin, the ground unstable. Stay away.

Had I entered another dimension, slipped into another world? The ground was chalky white. Dead trees and pieces of wood appeared to have been bleached.

It was incredibly fascinating. In some pools the water was calm, in others it burbled. Tiny pools of gooey, chocolatey mud, just a few inches across, boiled violently.

A little farther south, a half-mile boardwalk traced the formations of the Fountain Paint Pot area, where the abstract art on the ground is as real as any on a gallery wall. Spreading out from the springs and pools is a rainbow of vibrant colors and patterns _ dark brown, white, yellow, orange and peach. They're beautiful, in an almost disgusting way, when you consider that they're created by bacteria.

Names like Celestine Pool, Twig and Jelly geysers and Silex Spring, whose water was as pure blue as the sky on a June day, hint at the individuality of the thermal features. I approached Spasm Geyser in mid-eruption, showering everyone nearby on the boardwalk.

"Ooh, now I'm going to smell like this all day!" a young woman next to me wailed at the acrid smell. I was tempted to take a whiff of my own shirt but decided to wait for a more private moment.

It was past noon by the time I turned onto Firehole Lake Drive and found the Great Fountain Geyser, which promises eruptions of 100 to 230 feet. But it had erupted earlier in the morning and wasn't projected to go off again until about 8 p.m. No sense waiting .

I didn't have to wait long or go far, though. A few hundred feet down the road, the cone-shaped White Dome Geyser was doing its best to fill in, spraying water a few feet into the air.

After stops at Biscuit and Black Sand basins for more pools, geysers and bacterial oil paintings on the ground, I arrived just in time for the 3 o'clock show at Old Faithful.

The most famous geyser in the world has earned its reputation not by being the most reliable geyser in the park _ others go off like clockwork every few minutes _ or even the most spectacular. It's the combination of the two that draws hundreds of people to the amphitheater surrounding it.

Before an earthquake in 1959, Old Faithful erupted at intervals of 60 to 62 minutes, ranger Robert Coon said on a tour of the surrounding area later. Now it's more like 90 minutes between eruptions.

All eyes turned toward the geyser as it emitted a brief burst. Coon called it pre-play. On average, he said, Old Faithful shoots between 8,000 and 10,000 gallons of water every time it erupts. The showers reach 120 to 150 feet.

Old Faithful is the main attraction, to be sure. Three lodges, all with restaurants and gift shops, surround the geyser, including what's perhaps the best-known national park lodge, the Old Faithful Inn, completed in 1904.

But plenty of smaller sideshows compete. A boardwalk leads past more than a dozen geysers that, when put together, tell a much more complete story about the park than Old Faithful can.

Anemone geyser is shaped a little like a flower. It goes off every eight to 10 minutes but its sprays are only 3 or 4 feet high.

"Then it's just like pulling the plug on your bathtub," Coon said. "The water goes zoom. It's like you flushed the toilet."

As he talked, Plume Geyser, about 15 feet away, suddenly erupted with five bursts spread over a couple of minutes. Then it became silent again.

The geyser to watch is Beehive, Coon said. At 200 feet, its eruptions are more powerful than Old Faithful's. "It's just like a jet engine going off. It only goes off once a day, though, and we never know when." Eruptions occur 17 to 25 hours apart.

"It's really spectacular. Whenever we see the indicators, we tell everybody in the visitor center to drop everything and get out to Beehive."

About 7:30 I finally headed out of the park for the day. The evening drive was much like the morning trip _ frequent delays to gawk at the elk.

Then traffic came to a standstill. People climbed out of their cars, pulling out cameras and binoculars to gaze at the mountainside. I rolled down the window and called out, "What are we looking at?"

"There's a bear up there."

My heart rate stepped up a beat or two. But I was stuck. About 10 minutes and perhaps 250 feet down the road, I found a place to pull over so I could get a better look.

A helpful woman directed me to a spot just above the trees, and I spied a tiny brown blob moving across the mountain.

I pointed my camera and zoomed in as much as I could to get a better look. Sure enough, it looked like a single bear. I knew the pictures wouldn't hold up, but I took a few anyway. I might not get another chance.

Still, this was my kind of bear sighting. I had brought two fears with me on this trip: 1) That I wouldn't see a bear. 2) That I would see a bear _ up close and alone.

The next morning I pointed the car north in what I knew would be a race against time and a long list of unseen attractions. Norris Geyser Basin? Check. Mammoth Hot Springs? Check. Buffalo blocking traffic in the road? Check, check and check. Tower Falls? Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone? Yellowstone Lake? I saw. I checked them off the list.

At the end of the afternoon, I pulled into a parking lot at the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake, where I hoped to take a lingering look at the largest lake in North America at such a high altitude. But as with so many other places in the park, the hot pools and geysers grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go.

The vibrant blues of the waters and the changing colors of the bacteria palettes mesmerized me. That's when I noticed I wasn't alone. A huge bull elk was resting at water's edge, as if he were enjoying the peaceful scene before him every bit as much as I was.

He wasn't trying to control his time in Yellowstone, so neither would I. All I could do was enjoy it.

One geyser at a time.

Yellowstone was America's first national park when it was established in 1872. It encompasses 2.19 million acres in northwest Wyoming, stretching into Idaho and Montana. Many travelers combine trips to Yellowstone with a visit to nearby Grand Teton National Park.

GETTING THERE: Yellowstone is about 60 miles north of Jackson, Wyo. Other nearby airports with year-round service are in Cody, Wyo.; Bozeman and Billings, Mont.; and Idaho Falls, Idaho.

GETTING IN: The park is open year-round, but only the north entrance near Gardiner, Mont., is open to automobile traffic year-round. Other entrances, including the south entrance accessed from Jackson, are open seasonally. Many park roads, too, are closed in winter. Check www.nps.gov/yell for a schedule.

Admission to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks is $25 per vehicle and is good for seven days. An annual pass to both parks costs $50.

If you're thinking about visiting several parks, an America the Beautiful annual pass costs $80 and permits access to national parks and other federal recreation areas. Call 1-888-ASK-USGS or see store.usgs.gov/pass.

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A lifetime senior pass for citizens or permanent residents 62 and older costs $10. An access pass for permanently disabled citizens or permanent residents is free.

WHERE TO STAY: Xanterra Parks & Resorts operates nine lodges and hotels throughout the park, including the venerable Old Faithful Inn. Only the Old Faithful Snow Lodge & Cabins and Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel & Cabins are open in winter.

Lodging at the park can be hard to come by, so make reservations early. If you don't get in, keep checking.

Rooms at Old Faithful Inn ran from $93 this year; from $65 at the Old Faithful Lodge Cabins; $94 at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge: $75 at Mammoth Hot Springs; and $138 at Grant Village. Some of the least expensive rooms do not have baths.

Xanterra also manages and accepts reservations for five seasonal campgrounds, most from $18.50 a night.

For details, call 866-439-7375 or see www.travelyellowstone.com.

Seven other campgrounds are available on a first-come, first-served basis, including Mammoth Hot Springs, which is open year-round. Campsites rent for $12-14 a night.

Outside the park, look for lodging in Gardiner, Mont. (north); West Yellowstone, Mont. (west); Cody, Wyo. (east); or Silver Gate and Cooke City, Mont. (northeast). Or look for lodging just to the south in Grand Teton National Park.

WHERE TO EAT: Xanterra also operates restaurants throughout the park. Most are open seasonally.

In the Old Faithful area, you'll find the Bear Paw deli and the Old Faithful Inn Dining Room. The Old Faithful Snow Lodge offers the Obsidian Dining Room and the Geyser Grill, for quick service. At the Old Faithful Lodge you'll find a bakery, snack shop and cafeteria.

Other restaurants operate at Grant Village, the Canyon and Lake areas, Mammoth Hot Springs and Roosevelt Lodge.

Look for snacks and sandwiches in the park's general stores, too.

PARK PROGRAMS: Pick up a copy of the Yellowstone Today newspaper as you enter the park. It includes schedules of ranger-led programs and hikes.

TO LEARN MORE: Contact Yellowstone National Park at www.nps.gov/yell or 307-344-7381.

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Allen Holder: aholder@kcstar.com

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© 2008, The Kansas City Star.