Fairy Falls

Who can resist going on a hike to a water fall with a name like Fairy Falls? We couldn't! 

The hike took us one mile by the Middle Basin slightly north of Old Faithful. The Basin incorporates various springs and geysers that put out a large amount of water into a nearby river. As indicated, there is also an Upper and Lower Basin within about 2 miles in each direction. These areas are as heavily trafficked as Old Faithful with cars overflowing onto the main road for miles.

 

 So much water flows out of the springs that rivers are in abundance throughout Yellowstone.








 
 Back to the hike, after the one mile on level ground we turned left and basically had a nice rolling/level walk out to the falls through meadowland and forested areas. If you don't like what you see, you walk one more minute and the landscape always changes!

 Fairy Falls did not disappoint us. Just sitting at the base was delightful with the light spray bringing cooling relief from the 90 degree heat of the day. The hike back was the same but with a different perspective on the views. Round trip was 5 miles.

We finished up with lunch at the Old Faithful Inn restaurant. Awesome food (well yes we were hungry too!), and super reasonable prices.

The day before Barbara and I walked the 5 mile round trip to Gardiner and back from Overlook while Bob helped the Operations Manager for YS Association change out 7 toilets in the cabins. She and I were very happy to disappear for a few hours. :-) Unfortunately, no pictures of the toilets, ha!