Sat Sept 10, off to Norris Basin & Artists Paint Pot Thermal areas

Sat Sep 10 Day 13 The weather is still hot & nice, mid to upper 70’s
We headed up to Norris Geyser Basin today. It has several trails some of which are a mile & a half round trip. We opted to do the smaller ½ mile Porcelain Basin circle. We then drove to the Artists Paint Pot area. After a one third mile walk in to the start of the loop trail we saw that after half the circle loop on the level ground it went UP! We hadn’t seen any real bubbling mud pots as yet & were wondering if the climb up stairs and hill was worthwhile. We asked a girl who just came down & she said there was a good bubbling mud pot up top so away we went. Sheila said it was about 6 minutes of up hill walking plus 47 stairs up. However, it was great, bubbles of mud would form maybe 8 to 10 inches across & then burst flipping small bit of mud up. It was worth the climb. After that we drove down to the Old Faithful area. As it was now around 3PM we went to the Old Faithful Inn, (dating from 1903), and had some lunch in their snack bar. It has quite a marvellous lobby. It is 80 feet high and it is all made of varnished tree trunks & thick branches holding everything up. Back at the visitors center we went to a short film on Yellowstone and then watched Old Faithful then a different short film on the area. We went back to the Old Faithful Inn. We had chai tea lattes, sat on their veranda over top the hotel main hotel entrance that faced Old Faithful & watched it for the 4th the fourth time this trip. As it was now about 6:30 we headed back. We were going to stop at some really nice pools on the way back that Sheila had seen on her hike & I hadn’t but with the sun dropping behind the mountains and the temp starting to cool the pool were mostly obscured by steam & condensing water vapour. We arrive home about 8PM, putting 175 kms of the car today. It’s a big park & you end up driving for an hour or more getting from place to place. The speed limit is 45 mph and with people driving slow to see things on the 2 lane road you can’t make time on the road.