Eighth and Final Stop of the Day: The most famous part of the park has huge parking lots to accommodate crowds. We did not have trouble finding a spot to go see Old Faithful Geyser. We had over an hour to await the Old Faithful show, so we walked some of the boardwalk and paved trails around this area. This really makes these features accessible and in a safe way. So much work goes into constructing them, I can’t even imagine, as care has to be taken with the fragile and dangerous ground. There are so many pools and geysers here, so this was time well spent.

Finally it was time to get back to better viewing of Old Faithful. It was only about 10 minutes later than their estimate, but it is a crowd pleaser for sure.

We grabbed sandwiches from a nearby shop to prevent the hangries on our long drive to Rainbow Point Campground, which is outside of the park on the west side. It sits on the south shore of the Grayling Arm of Hebgen Lake and is a Custer Gallatin National Forest campground. We don’t have hook-ups, but with all of the driving and the cool temperatures at night, doing without is fine. The vault toilet is very clean.

The drive should have taken an hour, but it was closer to two with several slow-down spots on the drive out of the park. Those darn elk and bison are just so attractive, that everyone stops to get a better look and traffic comes to a standstill and backs up. We arrived after sunset, in twilight which is most unusual for us, but necessary in order to use our time in the national park.