Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful Inn—June 27th, 2024

Yesterday in Jackson Hole we had a clean-up and maintenance day. Doug washed Vanna, cleaned up inside and filled her up with all necessary fuels and fluids: propane, diesel, oil and DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid). Vanna, as we have learned, is quite high maintenance.

We enjoyed our stay in Jackson Hole, but this morning it was time to move on down the road. We reclaimed Vanna from Judy’s house and headed out to the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone, which is about 97 miles up the road. By the way, I have always thought that Jackson Hole was the name of the town, but the town is actually just named Jackson. Jackson Hole is the entire valley and wilderness recreation area.

I remembered today that JoJo, our Snake River raft pilot/guide, told us that Canada geese aren’t called Canadian geese, but rather Canada geese. (I already knew this, having done earlier research on Canada geese. Not really. I just heard it somewhere.) He also said that they aren’t named after the country Canada, but rather were named by John Canada, an ornithologist. I did not contradict JoJo, but at the time his story seemed a bit suspect. So today I did some research and could not find any ornithologist ever named John Canada. Maybe JoJo needs to check his sources.

For the next three nights we are staying at the Old Faithful Inn. The Inn opened in the spring of 1904, and boasted the modern conveniences of electric lights and steam heat (the radiators are still here. We have one in our room). It was constructed using local materials of lodgepole pine and rhyolite stone, and is the largest log hotel in the world. In a 2007 survey by the American Institute of Architects, it was voted number 36 out of 150 favorite buildings in America. The lobby is 3 1/2 stories with balconies all the way around on every floor, so it’s a great place to hang out. There is no air conditioning, no television and no Wi-Fi.

Since we are here, we of course were compelled to watch Old Faithful erupt this evening at 5 PM. An Old Faithful eruption lasts 1.5 to 5 minutes and reaches a height of 90-184 feet. The period of time between Old Faithful’s eruptions ranges from 35 to 120 minutes, though the average is 92 minutes. So, people stand around for an hour or so waiting on it and then it’s very short-lived. It is pretty amazing, though. What Doug and I both thought of when we were watching it was what happened when we brought our little girls here in the early 80’s. As it was erupting, a streaker (a tall, skinny young man with shaggy blonde hair) raced across the front of the benches where we were sitting. Streakers were a bit of a thing then (Google it if you are too young to remember them). We were kind of mortified that our little girls witnessed such a thing, but I guess it didn’t scar them for life. A park ranger was following close on the streaker’s (bare) tail, but I’m not sure if the ranger ever caught up with him.