Yellowstone- Old Faithful

We went to the Old Faithful Lodge for breakfast since we can’t get dinner reservations there, even with cancellations. I had corn cakes with huckleberry butter. I’m hooked on huckleberry!

As we were leaving the restaurant, we saw a group gathering in front of the giant fireplace, and it was a tour starting. So we jumped in and what a great decision! Ruth Quinn was our guide. She’s been working in Yellowstone for close to 20 years in the summers, and five at Old Faithful. She was a wealth of knowledge and actually wrote a book about Robert Reamer, the architect of the Old Faithful Inn.

Robert Reamer was only 29 years old when he worked on this project. He was unknown, but in the right place at the right time and quite lucky! He built it in a rustic style, and was the first to do so in a national park. He apprenticed at the age of 13 as an architect. The Inn is built with a large central structure, and additional were added on in the 20 years after it was built to add extra rooms. It was constructed in a year by 50 very busy carpenters. The additions were built to not detract from the central structure and seem to fade into the background.

The inn is built of lodge pole pine, and all of the materials were found in the park, within 20 miles. There are really interesting curved and knotty pines cut from diseased pines that were damaged or bacteria were impacting the growth, and it makes for an incredible view. I think it was built and opened in 1904. For $50, people could take a five-day stagecoach tour of the park, and it included food and lodging at the five major inns. Each stop was within 40 miles of the others. It was billed as a ‘Tour of Wonderland.’ The train companies funded construction and offered loans to the building company.

We got to see one of the rooms in the old section. The walls are lodge pole pines, and the rooms are adorable. Some have an old copper-topped table, and there’s a sink that was updated to porcelain 20 years after the rooms were built. Extensions added over another 200 rooms, and they are almost always full. All additions to the inn were done by Reamer, though his lifetime.

In 1959 there was a major earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the Richter Scale. It rotated the chimney, so it was unusable until it was fixed in a major renovation in 2004-2006. It also pulled the upper staircases from the wall, so people can not go above the third floor onto the roof. It’s since been fixed, however, due to fire codes and the fact that there is only one staircase to the upper floors, the levels are still closed. The renovation including some refurbishing, and updates to the heat and plumbing.

The inside of the inn is all wood, and it’s gorgeous. There was a blacksmith as well who did a lot of work, and he worked on the front doors, which are the originals, and many pieces around the inn. There is also a large, 25 lb popcorn popper to use in the fireplace! He also created the radiators, which are still used today. Some were replaced, and molded in the same fashion so you can’t tell the difference!

There’s also beautiful antique furnishings, and chairs and sofas of wood and leather. One of the companies that furnished the hotel is still in business, and it’s a relationship that has spanned 100 years and continues today.

We then went to the visitor’s center, which has a really interesting exhibit and watched a video about the creation of the park and the geysers. There was no sound, but thankfully it was close captioned so we could read all about it!

We got to see Old Faithful go off twice, and it was much nicer walking the boardwalk late morning once the frost melted! We walked up in the geyser basin around Old Faithful, and walked over to see Grand Geyser, a fountain geyser. They are usually in a pool of water and multi-dimensional. Unfortunately, it was much earlier than predicted and we arrived as it was ending! We did get to see a small geyser erupt. Old Faithful is a cone geyser, which shoots off in one direction.

We went back to our cabin to get our car and drove to the other geyser basins in the area. We went to the Great Fountain Geyser, another fountain-type geyser and missed that by minutes as well! We got to see a great cone geyser, which looked like the beehive Geyser we saw earlier in the day. It was a large cone built of deposits from the geyser water. We walked through the other geyser basins: Biscuit Basin, Black Sand Basin, Fountain Paint Pots, and Midway Geyser Basin. We saw a lot of beautifully-colored geysers, fumerols (steaming pots), mud pits and bacteria mats with amazing colors of orange, green and gold.

One of the basins had several buffalo incredibly close to the road. And just like in the warning videos, a family with young kids walked right up to a buffalo, within 50 feet, to take a picture! The recommendation is no closer than 75 feet, however, with young kids, even that seems foolish.

We headed back to the cabin, and went to sit on the porch of one of the Inns overlooking Old Faithful to have a drink and enjoy the late afternoon here. We’ve been walking all day and we’re pooped! I’m now officially geysered out!!!

We went for dinner at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, the only Inn open through the winter. The others close in mid-October. This lodge does have internet, so I’ll likely post this after dinner! I’m not sure we’re doing anything else tonight, so probably won’t miss anything exciting!

Tomorrow we head to Mammoth, another part of the park towards the northwest. We’re going to soak in some hot springs, then head back to Billings to fly back home on Saturday. This week has flown by!