Belgrade, MT

So much for avoiding cold and snow. Yellowstone sunny and scorching -- the heat from above and heat from below, it was Colter's Hell alright. I left my hat and water in the car at Midway Geyser Basin and I almost fainted. I guess some years it gets cold early. This year certainly wasn't one.

There are four ways to enter Yellowstone. None are more impressive as the Eastern one. From Cody, it looks reminiscent of Yosemite. It is the entrance to Buffalo Bill State Park to be exact; you have to go through it before you get to Yellowstone. The original access road to Yellowstone is still hugging the cliffs of Shoshone canyon around Buffalo Bill Dam.

Past Buffalo Bill Reservoir it meanders through Yellowstone mountains till you get to the Yellowstone Lake. We took this route to arrive at Old Faithful after 1 PM stopping at various vista points. We plugged our car behind Snow Lodge and went for the 2:14 eruption. It apparently was not as regular today and went off after 2:19.

Black Sands Basin near Old Faith was not on the Reader's Digest route. But it provided the most interesting color among all. Then we went on to the Midway, Fire Hole Lake and Fire Hole Canyon. Yellowstone is famous for hot springs and geysers, but there are lots of cold streams and rivers meandering through meadows and canyons. They regularly meet each other at the river's shore. I'd love to dip in the hot spring and flow into the cold river, but you probably will scald quickly in reality. The spring water is boiling. Lots of sulfur too. The name Yellowstone probably come from the sulfuric limestone. You can smell that suffocating smell while you walk among the springs and geysers.

There is no yellow stone in Fire Hole Canyon. It is a granite canyon with Flatbed River running through it. It is the look of Yellowstone many people don't know. And Fire Hole Canyon is the preview of Yellowstone Canyon that we'll visit tomorrow.

The day ended with 15,000 steps registered on my fitbit. Add all the driving and getting in and out of the car, it is one of the most active days since I got CFS. It's practically a recovery. We took a day off here in Belgrade to recuperate and I just feel fatigued, not sick. It is the post-exertional fatigue, flush with happy chemicals. Tomorrow, I'll probably get post-exertional funk -- it has been a regular pattern lately in this trip. But I'll recover in the afternoon. That has been the pattern too.