SUMMARY:  No rush to get up this morning–it’s only 13 1/2 miles to our next permitted campsite. It rained a bit, so we were glad to stay in the tent a little longer. We followed the trail to the west shore of huge Shoshone Lake, then waded through a quarter mile of swamp before finally reaching the Shoshone Geyser Basin. Wow! It is quite a place!

Signs warned us to stay on the trail as we passed close by hot spring pools of all sizes, colors, and temperatures ranging from just steaming to bubbling and boiling. The geysers each have little cones, and they roar and send up plumes of steam.

We went slowly through, looking at everything, before going on to our designated campsite, OA1, near the Firehole River. We hung out by the river for awhile, took a nap, and then walked half a mile to see the Lone Star Geyser erupt. It’s the 2nd biggest in the whole park, and quite spectacular! Back to camp for dinner then we had to dive into our tent as a thunderstorm came rolling through.

DETAILS:  It was raining lightly this morning, and since we only had 13 1/2 miles to do, we just lazed in the tent until it cleared up a bit.  By the time we got around to packing up the tent, it had already dried nicely.  The only bummer was the mossies (mosquitoes)–they were at nuisance level.  I wish that the Yellowstone campsites would be placed where there are less of those whining little critters!  After a bit of climbing (including one big climb), we reached the shore of huge Shoshone Lake.  The trail goes along the “beach” a bit (nice!!) but then it heads into what looked at first like a pretty green meadow with a few water lily ponds and baby pine trees, but then it becomes a SWAMP.  All we could do was to follow the “trail”, going slosh, slosh through water, mud and plants.  We didn’t care about it, with our La Sportiva running shoes, but we wondered aloud, “What can the people do with this when they wear hiking BOOTS?  Take them off and go barefoot?”

Not too long after we got out of the swamp, we were into the Shoshone Basis geyser zone.  Wow!  The signs warned us to stay ON the trail.  The place was full of hot springs (all colors) and little geysers and boiling springs.  I was so glad we did not have to rush through it.  We walked slowly and stopped often to look at the amazing features.

By lunchtime, we were back in quiet green forest, with NO mossies!   Yay!  It was so peaceful.  We took time to just enjoy the quiet.    By 2:00, even though we’d spent so much time just sauntering along, we had reached campsite OA1.  The first thing we did was to hang our food over the “bear bar”.  Then we headed for the nearby Firehole River, where we got water and drank a whole liter of “bug juice” (Emer-gen-C + Crystallite) each while we just lay around resting near the river.  One interesting feature was that there were tiny little cute hot springs everywhere.  You actually have to watch your step a bit so you don’t land in one of them!

Then we headed off along the trail for the 1/2 mile hike to see the Lone Star Geyser, but after a few minutes we met two young guys who told us it had just erupted 15 minutes ago.  Since it goes 3 hours between eruptions, we decided to go back to camp and wait there.  We set up the tent, and  I lay on top of my sleeping bag studying the maps for the trail to Mack’s Inn and then on to Lima.  At 5:00, we walked over to the Lone Star.  About 5 minutes after we arrived, the eruption started, so that was great timing!  There were a fair number of other people watching also, who had walked in from Old Faithful Village.  The geyser roared mightily (very impressive) and sent a plume of hot water and steam up 40′ in the air, for about 15 minutes.  When it finally fizzled down, everyone applauded, and as if it heard us, out came another burst (we all yelled, “Encore!”) before it finally did stop.

But dark, dramatic clouds were building fast and thunder was rumbling in the distance, so we hurried back to camp, and were into our tent just before it started to rain.  Whew!  Glad we had already set up the tent!  We ate our dinner in the tent (tortillas, ham, cheese), and after less than an hour, the T-storm was over and the setting sun was peeking through the clouds.  Our plan for tomorrow is: Breakfast at Old Faithful Village, then on to our next campsite.  If we can put in a 28 mile day, though, we could make it all the way OUT of Yellowstone Park and skip the campsite.  We’ll see!   I hope we can pull that off, because Montana is calling!