Continue driving about 3.5 miles from Grand Loop Rd in the direction of Old Faithful Geyser to reach the Grand Prismatic Geyser. The parking lot at this point is also very large. After getting off the car and crossing the wooden bridge, walk along the plank road and you can experience the colors and steaming of the Grand Prismatic Hot Spring up close from the east side. In fact, this is because the hot spring is so large.

There is a lot of steam, so you can't really appreciate the beauty of the Grand Prism from a close distance. You have to look down from a high place.

The hillside west of the Grand Prismatic is the mountain with the coniferous forest in the distance in the picture above. You can't get to that mountain from the Grand Prismatic side because it's all hot spring basins and there are no trails or paths to get there. In fact, the hillside is located on the west side of the Grand Prismatic, next to the Fairy Falls Trail, which runs north-south.

The southern entrance of this dirt road (the entrance connected to the main highway) is just over 1 km south of the Grand Prismatic Point. There is also a small parking lot. After parking, cross the bridge to reach the Fairy Falls Trail. Walk about 1 km north to start climbing the mountain, and then you can overlook the Grand Prismatic from a closer distance.

In fact, when Yunluo and Yan Chenyu arrived at the south of Fairy Falls Trail, the road was closed! Again! This trail (cars cannot drive, only walking) was also closed! The luck was too bad. In fact, when Yunluo was overlooking the Grand Prism on the east side of the mountain, he felt something was wrong because he didn't see anyone on the Fairy Falls Trail.

Logically speaking, a considerable number of tourists would choose to climb the mountain to overlook the Grand Prismatic. However, there were two or three hikers coming out of the south entrance, indicating that there was still hope to get in! So Yunluo studied the map and found the north entrance of this trail. Without saying anything, he got in the car and headed straight for the north entrance!

You can drive a little further from the north exit, but you can only walk from there. It's 3 meters from the hillside on the west side of the Grand Prism. Check in and have a bite to eat, and then pick up Yunluo at the south exit of the trail two hours later.

I carried my camera and started walking on this trail with almost no pedestrians, heading south.

At 1 km, I met a Canadian couple who were going to Fairy Falls. Yunluo walked faster. After I passed them, there was no trace of anyone. The weather started to get gloomy. Yunluo was a little worried about the rain, so he quickened his pace. After walking for nearly an hour, I could see the steam coming out of the Grand Prism from afar, and then I saw a sign at the fork in the road.

The other fork in the road leads to Fairy Falls, but it is a dead end. If Yunluo returns the same way, it means that he has walked so far in vain. And he cannot meet Mushroom MM at the south entrance as agreed in advance, so he has to bite the bullet and go ahead. Because he is alone, he is still quite nervous. First, he is afraid of encountering a bear. Although it is a happy ending, Yunluo probably also confessed. Second, he is afraid of encountering a forest park patrolman, who will order Yunluo to return the same way, which is also a tragedy.

I was really nervous. But the more scared I was, the more excited I was. After walking for 10 minutes, I finally arrived at the hillside on the west side of the Grand Prism. There were several paths up the hill that people had trampled out, and the paths on the hillside were scattered. I relied on my own feelings to find the best view to overlook the Grand Prism and told my friends clearly.

There is a place where you can take a full view of the Grand Prism without any trees blocking the view!

Because I was breaking in illegally, I was a little scared when I took the photo. I was afraid that the park manager below would find out. For a while, a police car passed by the bottom of the mountain, which made Yunlu even more nervous. Later I learned that the police car drove in to remove the roadblock. Because when Yunlu went down the mountain, he saw tourists going up the mountain.

They told Yunluo that the road blockade at the south entrance had just been lifted. Are they kidding me? It was only 1 kilometer from the south entrance, but Yunluo walked 5 kilometers from the north entrance. It was unscientific!

We dropped Yunluo off at the Black Sand Basin and continued to visit the hot springs, then watched the sunset. Finally, we walked for 20 minutes to reach E, which was full of small wooden houses. The small one had only one double bed, so Yunluo and Mushroom both slept on the floor.

Today's dinner is more reliable. The lodge here has Chinese food. It costs about $12 for a full meal. There is grilled chicken, broccoli and potatoes. The key is that there is rice! While eating, I accidentally saw the Old Faithful geyser erupting outside the window. It was dark and it was not easy to take pictures. Don't worry, I will wait for the eruption of Old Faithful tomorrow!

Today, when I walked down the mountain on the east side of the Grand Prism to the road, I found two police cars maintaining order. When I walked back to the parking lot and crossed a meadow, I saw two yaks just 5 meters away from Yunluo. The park patrolman in the parking lot called Yunluo to hurry over and stay away from the yaks. It seemed that the two yaks were lost.

The park rangers left and cleared an area, and all cars and pedestrians on the road had to make way for the yaks. Order was not restored until the yaks were far away from the parking lot.

I got up at around 8 o'clock, opened the door and saw dark clouds outside, which was a bit disappointing. After all, most scenery is clearer on sunny days. I had breakfast and looked at the schedule. The next eruption of Old Faithful Geyser will be in 40 minutes, at 9:49. I walked and strolled along the boardwalk of the nearby hot spring basin.

Discovering the Yellowstone geothermal scenery on a cloudy day is another charm. Sometimes Yunluo would walk down the plank road, and the park administrator would remind Yunluo not to step into the basin to prevent danger. Although only one person has been boiled to death by falling into the hot spring in history, there are still some tourists who get scalded every year.

When the time was up, there was no time to walk back to the circle of plank roads around Old Faithful, so it was also good to watch it from a distance. This time the eruption of Old Faithful was ten minutes later than expected, which was already very unpunctual. The 20 to 30 meter water column and steam during the eruption was still quite spectacular.

It’s just that it was cloudy in Beijing, so the photos looked a bit gray. It would be beautiful if I could see a volcanic eruption in my lifetime!

After watching the eruption of Old Faithful, Yunluo and Yan Chenyu started today's itinerary. The first stop was the trip to overlook the Grand Prismatic which was not completed yesterday due to road closure. Yunluo was also very hardworking and accompanied Mushroom to climb the hill of Fairy Falls Trail again. This time there were more tourists.

Most of them were Chinese. The gloomy weather began to drizzle, and the shawl Yunluo had bought in India and had been wearing served as a raincoat. Her steps were vigorous, and Mushroom MM called herself a little idiot when climbing mountains. Yunluo almost dragged her up all the way.

They went straight to the unobstructed viewing platform that Yunluo had discovered yesterday. They were also shocked by what they saw. Although it was cloudy and rainy, the gray sky and earth further highlighted the bright colors of the Grand Prism.

I wanted to go straight to Mammoth Hot Springs, but I found that the road on the upper left of the figure 8 was closed again. The clouds fell, and I had to take a detour of more than 60 miles!

I was a little speechless these days because of the road closures in Yellowstone Park! So I went to the hot spring basin first.

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

The entire plain is as white as porcelain. At the entrance, there is fierce steam emitting a hissing sound, and billowing white mist rushes towards the sky. Here you can see green and brown streams, as well as small sapphire hot springs in the milky white rocks. It is like a fairyland!

Here I met an old American man who actively did a favor to help Yunluo take photos. During the chat, he mentioned that he was from Minnesota and had been to China. He had a suffocating expression when he saw the mist in Beijing. It was very interesting.

I'm a little tired of seeing hot springs these past two days. On the way to Mammoth via the upper right half of the figure 8, I saw another majestic landscape of Yellowstone Park, with undulating mountains and coniferous forests like a green ocean. The continuous winding mountain roads are a test of my driving skills, and when I come across an observation deck with a wide view, I naturally have to get off the car to get some fresh air.

Finally, let’s talk about Mammoth Hot Springs. After visiting Mammoth Hot Springs, Yunluo was sad for a long time. In fact, he just felt a helpless regret in his heart. An earthquake in 2002 caused Mammoth Hot Springs to "die", the water source was exhausted, and the entire hot spring ecosystem died. Now all that can be seen are dry calcified rocks and dead trees.

It is filled with a desolate atmosphere, with only a trace of hot water gushing out from the ground, nourishing the colors and making them pale in comparison. But from this only hot spring flow area, one can imagine how spectacular the Mammoth Hot Springs would have been "in its lifetime", as a former landmark of Yellowstone National Park, surpassing the Grand Prismatic Hot Springs in terms of grandeur.

Perhaps there is no other landscape on the entire earth that can compare with it. But it is dead, and unless you travel back in time, you will never be able to see its former glory with your own eyes. This feeling is a bit like Yun Luo's feeling when he first watched Roman Holiday more than ten years ago and loved Audrey Hepburn so much, but after looking up information, he found out that she had died in 1992. (To be continued...)