Old Faithful Inn

I made reservations to stay one night at the Old Faithful Inn in January of 2010.  I was able to reserve one of the original rooms which were built in 1903 – 1904.  While there we participated in a guided tour – learning about the history and recent upgrades.  In the early days only the wealthy traveled by train from the East Coast to the Inn – the "place to see and to be seen".  After dinner in the grand dining room couples would parade in the finest attire around the promenade on each of the 4 floors that opened to the Grande Rotunda.  The individual rooms had no plumbing but the guests were given a warm "porcelain pitcher" of water to take to the room and use in the matching "porcelain basin".  A commode was provided for each room so that guests would not have to go outside during the nights.

The amazing use of raw timber in the construction of the Inn makes me grateful that it survived the 1988 forest fire.  It seems the perfect pieces of wood, including magnificent burls were selected individually to fit each application of the building.  This use of wood certainly does justice Trees!

I didn't realize the significance of

being assigned Room # 1 - but we were right across the hall from a beautiful guest bathroom with walk in

shower!  We were at the very end of the old building with our double windows looking right out onto the geyser basin.  Please click on pictures if you wish to see a larger version.

I always wanted to be one of those people who were sitting on the second floor balcony of the Inn watching Old Faithful Erupt!  There has always been a big clock displayed in the rotunda telling the estimated time of the next eruption.  Old Faithful has become less "faithful" over the years – so Ron & I had time to go to dinner in the Grand Dining Room at 6:00 – enjoying a wonderful meal and spectacular service and still have plenty of time to see the Eruption that took place near dark on September 8th – and we watched again the next morning before leaving Old Faithful Inn.

There She Blows!  September 9th about 10:40 am

The huge fireplace in the Rotunda has a fire pit on all four sides with places for guests to sit and enjoy the lodge.  This picture is taken from the second floor showing the big clock on the fireplace.  Note the beautiful wood construction throughout!  What a Grand Place!

 Hope you enjoyed the visit.  You must see this in person - it is remarkable.  More on the trip and 50th Class Reunion to come.  Love to all!

Yellowstone National Park

When I lived near Idaho Falls our family traveled to Yellowstone Park frequently. We experienced the early days when bears begged for hand outs along the road and raided picnic tables as soon as all the food was out. Ron & I took our teenagers there when we were a new family in 1976 and we haven't been there since. In fact since my father passed away in December of 2001 – I hadn't been back to Idaho Falls. My brother and his wife came to see us in 2002 in Salem. It was definitely time for a visit. It was wonderful spending time with Bob and Barbara.

On September 8th we left Bob's house early in the morning for our Yellowstone Adventure.  We entered the National Park through West Yellowstone Montana.  We were pushing the envelop for nice weather this late in the season.  Old Faithful Inn closes on September 30th until the Park opens later for the Winter Season with other Lodging available.

Our Senior Gold Card got us through the gate withour any charge - but we soon found a place to purchase a fishing permit for Ron - 3 days for $15.00.  He fished along the Madison River where he caught and released a native Cut Throat Trout. 

We had a picnic beside the Madison River during an hour of so of dry weather.  I nervously kept looking over my sholder for wild life.  Gratefully the only "wildlife" were grey nutcrackers, crows, ravens and chipmonks!

After a nice Lunch we traveled up the Fire Hole River - until it dropped out of sight into the Fire Hole Canyon - and came out again as a pretty little water fall. 

We experienced every kind of weather in the first six hours of our trip.  From 80 degrees and burning sun to thunder storms and pouring rain.

Buffalo stopped traffic along the way and they are huge!  We also saw a wolf in the basin but were unable to get a picture.  We heard that the Elk and Moose were near Mammoth Hot Springs and with only one day in the park we decided against a long drive toward the North Park Enterance.

I was eager to check in at the Inn so we saw what we could of the Lower Geyser Basin - until the thunder storm sent us running for cover.  Then we moved on to the Midway Geyser Basin where we caught a bit of sunshine and hot weather. 
AT LAST - WE ARRIVED!






I was SO Excited - It was just GRAND!  In the next blog - I will show you the inside of this historic Inn!
Thanks  for sharing in the fun.