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Daily Didactic
We started early, which is getting to be an unfortunate trend, to bail on Bridge Bay campground and head over to first-come-first-serve Norris campground. We stayed in Norris last road trip and have pleasant memories. It turns out they were not only pleasant but roughly accurate, which was nice. We found a site where we could have a campfire without meeting the neighbors and registered for the evening. After securing lodging we headed south to Old Faithful Village for a shower and some "thermal feature" viewing.
We had a late breakfast at the Old Faithful Inn and joined the throng to watch it's namesake go off on schedule. After watching Old Faithful with the mob, Brian made a phone call and Theresa headed into the Visitor Center. Theresa came out of the Center a few minutes later excited by news that Beehive Geyser's "indicator" was indicating that it would go off very soon, a tip she'd received from a similarly excited Center employee. We scurried down the path and got to Beehive just in time to sit down on the boardwalk, watch it blow, and realize we were directly in it's path. We and about 30 other spectators were drenched, but in a good "it's hot out" kind of way. A little sulphury, this seemed liked a good opportunity to go find the showers.
After cleaning up, we tracked down the backcountry office for some advice on, and a permit for, an overnight backpacking trip for tomorrow. After squaring away an adventure, we then headed down the three mile boardwalk to peer at a passel of geysers, springs, and pools. We recreated our path from 2004 on the drive back to Norris and stopped at Prismatic Pool and Fountain Paint Pots. At Fountain Paint Pots we stumbled across our third really large geyser blowing off for the day, which made us feel fortunate. Eventually we returned to our campsite, enjoyed a campfire, and called it a hydrothermically eventful day.