9-13 Sunday

September 13, 2009 - Sunday
I wanted to attend church this morning and found that they discontinued that part of the park activities last week. We had to move from our campground as they are closing for the winter and move to the one at Grant Village. It will be open until the end of September. We got moved and headed off to Old Faithful Visitors Center for information on another hike Paulette had read about. Ranger Cathy was there and gave suggestion on which direction to hike to Mystic Falls and other choices concerning our knees. We chose to do the big loop to the top of the mountain and then down to an overlook of the falls before going to the falls and back through one of the geyser basins. This hike had a gain of nearly 600 feet in a half mile and was another tough one. Part of the trail was between 24 and 30 inches wide and looked like goats could do it. I choose at this point to not look down or where I had been – just where I was going. I did use both walking sticks as I would not want to make a misstep, stub my toe on a root or just slide down on my behind. We had our apple, cheese, and chocolate lunch at the top. On the way up and also on the way down, we observed Old Faithful erupt. That was an awesome sight from high up the mountain. The falls were absolutely spectacular and the walls above and to the side wept as they ran to meet the force of the falls. The falls cascades for 70 feet. I met a lady at the top of the hike who talked to me about making storybooks of her photos – I gave her my card – yeah for Creative Memories. We returned to the car and headed back to Old Faithful Inn. We had not seen it since the renovation they were doing when we were here in ’05. Still has all the charm that it had before with the huge beams and feel of a cabin in the woods. The furniture is just massive with a welcoming feel. We had a quick supper at the Snow Lodge Grill and headed back to camp. By the time we arrived there was a light sprinkling of rain so we hurried to get a good HOT shower and wash our hair. That was the best $3 I have spent on this trip. We worked on our computers until the batteries went dead and since you have no power in national parks it was reading with a flashlight after that. Night night from two old broads in a little egg camper – but we are clean.