
Old Faithful. What can I say about Old Faithful? I saw it. I didn’t get to watch it spew out smoldering hot water. I did get to see evidence that it apparently does do that, but I’m one of the foolish few who learned that Old Faithful….isn’t really faithful. In a sense.
Old Faithful got his name, because he is guaranteed to erupt. I was always given the impression, as were a few others that I know, that Old Faithful goes off like clockwork on the hour. In actuality, he tends to go off like clockwork within a “every 35 to 120 minutes” kind of way. I would like to say that Old Faithful is “supposed to”. Now, I’m sure many people know this; especially, my travelers. I knew it probably wasn’t an exact science, but I wasn’t really aware of his schedule.
Truth is, I’ve never paid it much mind. I could have researched and investigated before I left for Wyoming, but let’s remember this was a spur of the moment trip. I’ve also never had a lot of desire or urgency to see Old Faithful. This, too, was spur of the moment decision when I was like 25 miles away. I figured I was there…why not. At least I would be able to say that I’ve seen it.
35-120 minutes…I can assure you that though there may be fortunate ones, I was not one of them. By the time that I arrived, Old Faithful had already spouted off his water. According to the “next to go off” signs around the area….he should have gone off again relatively soon. Two hours later, he had still not gone off again. 120 minutes later and he had not gone off again and that was just from my arrival. Remember that by the time I arrived, he had already gone off and long settled. 
Long settled to the only thing that remained was a wet boardwalk. I tried to wait patiently, but it was my last day in Wyoming and I had things to do. Things that didn’t involve standing around in a crowd of people waiting for some geyser to spout off. I’m also 98% sure that he did exactly that as soon as I left the parking lot.
Now, I’m not knocking Old Faithful. No, not at all. Slightly annoyed that I spent two hours waiting for him to spout off, but I can say that I saw his resting place. I can also say that the odds are if I go back and have more time…I’ll probably spend another 35-120 minutes waiting for him to spew smoldering hot water into air. I mean, now I just have to do it off of principal. Besides, there is probably that little twitch in all of us that wants to watch things erupt (geysers, volcanoes….from safe distances of course) and I’m no different.
Despite his untimely decision to not go off within his scheduled minutes, it made for some great pictures when he started teasing us. I got to take some nice shots and meet some nice people. Sometimes that is really all that matters. Have a beautiful day and tomorrow.

Montana Rose Photography