Fairy Falls
The hike to Fairy Falls is a pretty easy 4.5 km walk, very flat, through the newly grown forest after the fire of 1988. Along much of the trail there is a thick growth of new lodgepole pine. Towering above are some old burned snags, very few still standing, but heavily charred spires sticking high into the sky. It was the first really nice sunny day we’ve had since the day we went to Old Faithful.
The first mile of the hike is along the east side of the Midway Geyser Basin, and the springs were very foggy in the cool morning air. The fog above Grand Prismatic Spring was pastel colors of pink, blue and green. A large bison bull stood just off the edge of the trail drinking from the hot pool water.
Fairy Falls is quite tall, about 200 feet high, and though there is not much water flowing over it, it is one straight drop into a pool below a cliff. Some of the water strikes the cliff about half way down, and then forms a lace background to the water that falls straight down.
Imperial Geyser
After the falls we continued on for another kilometer to Imperial Geyser. This was quite impressive, spouting almost continuously, then stopping for a few seconds suddenly, and then starting up again. It sometimes threw water thirty feet into the air. It was very quiet, with just the noise of the geyser, and the mudpots bubbling not far away. Enid jumped and I was startled when someone came up behind us suddenly. I said to the man, “at least you weren’t a big bear!” Shortly after this a few more people came by, but none of them stayed as long as we did.
Mudpots at Imperial Geyser
We were among the first out on the trail this morning, but when we returned we met many more people. The parking lot was jammed, and there was barely room to get the Tahoe out between the parked cars and incoming traffic. Not many of the people in the parking lot were on the trail to Fairy Falls, mostly just following along the trail by the hot springs, but some of them were climbing up to the high hill on the west of the springs. You could probably get a really good view from the top.
After we returned we drove to Whiskey Flats picnic ground, where I found a good sized dry log which we loaded in the back of the Tahoe. After that we drove around the Firehole Lake Road, and stopped at the lake to watch the hot rapids. Tonight when we got back I sawed and split wood so we will have a fire tonight, and enough wood for at least two more campfires.