After a terrible night’s sleep, we thought today was going to be wrecked, but it turned out quite lovely.
We started by packing all the stuff up to move to the Lake Hotel. Next, it was Junior Ranger time!! This was a long day of work for Dre and myself. There were two objectives: 1) Obtain the regular JR Badge 2) Get the Scientist Badge.
Dre’s hypothesis was that geysers were alive. Our job was to verify this. At the end of the day, Dre decided his hypothesis was incorrect and that geysers are in fact, not living creatures. However, he did learn that they have bacteria in them and that hydrothermal means hot water. The temperature readings that we took above were between 140-190 degrees depending on how close we were.
It’s really crazy because a lot of the springs look so peaceful and beautiful. It makes you want to jump in with the freezing cold weather, but when you see how truly hot they are, it’s amazing.
Tip #22 – Don’t jump into the springs. They are super hot – duh. Surprisingly though, several people a year decide to dip their toe or jump in and die. When Dre was getting his badge, the ranger told us that one man jumped into a spring to rescue his dog that had jumped in, so they both died.
We picked up our badges and headed to the Lake Hotel. This was about an hour drive. We saw a ton of bison and deer. We also saw a RV that didn’t U-turn correctly halfway off the road.
Once we arrived at the Lake Hotel, the staff was excellent. Significantly better than the OFI, and we put our names on the waiting list for dinner. As soon as we finished putting our stuff in the room, it was time to eat.
Dinner was great and relaxing. Then we ran upstairs and started to put the kiddos to bed, but Dre had a surprise for me!!
It was an adorable puzzle you put together and then read the note on the back. It was an excellent end to a great day!
