Cool Kayaking to Hot Springs

We woke up this morning under the snow-capped Grand Teton mountains with a chill in the air - 48 degrees to be exact. It made for a nice morning walk before we hopped in kayaks and paddled around Lake Jackson. We landed on one of the many small islands and Megan and Maggie braved the cool water for a swim while David watched from the kayak.

Maggie finished her junior ranger program and was sworn in as the newest Grand Teton National Park Junior Ranger. For those keeping track at home, that is four Junior Ranger badges for Maggie.

We then made the 90-minute drive from Grand Teton to Yellowstone National Park, arriving in time to see Old Faithful Geyser shoot off several stories into the sky. Maggie started on her Yellowstone Junior Ranger tasks and we enjoyed a casual dinner in the Old Faithful Inn.

After dinner we embarked on a Twilight Fire in the Hole tour of several of the more the 10,000 thermal features and geysers as the sun set over Yellowstone. We saw a large bison on our way out of the Inn riding in the original 1936 yellow Yellowstone coach, and two large male bison just hanging out beside the road a little while later.  Black Sand Pool was our first stop and we definitely felt the heat from several large pools of hot springs that shot into the air almost constantly.

After seeing several more hot springs and geysers, including a couple that just reopened to the public after the massive flooding Yellowstone experienced in 2022, we made our way back to the Old Faithful Inn just in time to see its namesake erupting once again.