Fairy Falls

 Wednesday, June 30

We survived our first night of 40° sleeping. Shiver. We knew before we left home that Yellowstone weather would probably still be chilly at night (that's why we went there last) so we had purposely brought along some extra layers for that. Pretty sure we were glad for every one!

Do not let this peaceful scene deceive you; that air mattress was one of the single, biggest annoyances of this whole trip. I'd like to ask the folks who gave it a five star review a few questions but I don't suppose that would do a whole lot of good. Let's just say that by 2 or 3 o'clock every morning, Chris and I would begin to enjoy some really close fellowship, (read: we were smashed together) as the air somehow seeped out of our lovely bed. I kept threatening to take to the floor but with the chilly temperatures, we didn't really have enough blankets to split up. Yes, well. We survived. 

We planned to leave camp at 9 and managed to shiver out of our beds and eat a cold breakfast before heading out for Yellowstone. The weather was beautiful; cool in the morning but clear and sunny. There are so many things to see, it was hard to decide what we wanted to do. We decided to hike to Fairy Falls. 

Views along the way...

It wasn't a hard trail but it turned out to be about twice as long as we first thought it would be. When we realized that at the halfway point, it seemed like a shame to have come so far and then go back, so we soldiered on.

I'd say it was worth it. 

We talked to a man at the falls who has been there often. He said normally when he's been there, there might be three or four people, and sometimes he's had the falls all to himself. The day we were there, he counted 60 people. 

After hiking back out, we managed to find a picnic table at a very busy picnic area. Almost everywhere you went, parking lots were full, especially the later in the day it got. 

We headed back to our campsite after that, to avoid the middle of the day crowds. 

The Madison river ran along the edge of Baker's Hole Campground, so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be a lovely place to cool off. It wasn't terribly deep, but the current was strong enough that it was fun to walk upstream and then let the current "float" you back down... or I should say, it was fun to watch them do it. I set my lawn chair in the water and just enjoyed wetting my feet. 

We decided to eat the rest of our picnic food for supper, partly because that's what sounded good and partly because we got a little too lazy to cook over a fire. Not to mention, we really didn't feel like smelling like smoke and not being able to shower. After that, we headed back in to the park to watch Old Faithful. 

There were storm clouds gathering and a brief shower sent us running for shelter but it gave Old Faithful a cool backdrop anyway!

No two eruptions are ever exactly alike!

Then, it was back to camp to brace ourselves for another chilly night and that aggravating air mattress....