We left the Fishing Bridge area headed west toward Grant Village/West Thumb. It is a nice drive along the border of Lake Yellowstone which covers 131 square miles and has 141 miles of shoreline. Stopping at West Thumb Geyser Basin for the 1/2 mile boardwalk of hot features. Some of the more memorable were Fishing Cone- a geyser actually in the lake and Abyss Pool- one of the deepest hot springs in YNP at 53 ft of clear water. We loaded back in and headed north to the Old Faithful (O.F.) area.
Morning Glory
We crossed the Continental Divide (twice) on this section of road and pulled into the ever crowded O.F. area. We had a nice cafeteria lunch at the Snow Lodge in a window seat and and just as were finishing, O.F. erupted for 3 minutes- giving us a beautiful view right from our table. We went back to the car and unloaded our bikes for the next adventure- a 2.8 mile out and back bike trip to see (you guessed it- more hot features!) First, we stopped at Daisy Geyser, a 75 foot high geyser that erupts for about 4 minutes every 2-3.5 hours. 
Except for one other family, we had the view all to ourselves- a rarity in YNP! We continued on to the famous Morning Glory pool and it vibrant blue and yellow colors. We turned around and stopped at Riverside Geyser but did not wait since the predicted eruption was over an hour away. Just as we arrived back, O.F. was about to erupt again, so we got our third (and best) view of the geyser and a nice pic of V&T. We drove north toward ? and skipped a number of geysers as we were all “hot featured” out by this point. A ranger had told us about Firehole Canyon area of the Firehole River and that the water often was over 85 degrees due to the cauldron warming. All of us were excited for a warm swim- unfortunately, the water temperature did not cooperate- it was closer to 65-70 degrees (at best) and T is the only one who braved a full body dunking! V made it just past her waist, G to knee high and L to a warm rock on the shore for seating. We dried out and made the drive back to Grant Village area for dinner at the Lake House restaurant- beautiful views of Yellowstone Lake as you ate- if only the food would have been half as good. :( We headed east for home for an early night- or what was supposed to be. The 4 of us crawled into the big bed and watched an episode of McGuyver.
Swimming at Firehole Canyon