1937 Vintage Road Trip Scrapbook - Part 21 - Yellowstone, Part 2

(for part 1, click here)

More Yellowstone

I don't know where the Johnsons stayed in Yellowstone. Maybe they drove on through in single day (which would be a shame.) They may have camped or stayed in one of the lodges or inns. Hard to tell from the scrapbook. 

Below are close-up of the postcards from the above page. I like how it looks like there's a face within the billowing steam of Old Faithful. Below the following postcard, our intrepid reporter Joan writes, "150 ft high. This is the most celebrated picture ever taken of this famous geyser, which with clock-like regularity gives its exhibitions at intervals of 60 to 80 minutes..." I believe there's another line written under this, but it's too faded to read.

Below is a postcard of Giant Geyser, of which Joan writes, "This geyser continues each display for an hour and a half. Its intervals of quiet between eruptions vary from six to fourteen days."

Below is a postcard of the Old Faithful Inn, which was constructed in 1904. I love this old building, and spent many evenings inside, writing, reading, and listening to the piano player while having a few cocktails. If you want to see a couple blog posts of pics I took inside the Inn, you can find them here   and  here.

Among the scrapbook pages of Yellowstone, Joan showed some of her drawing skills with pics of flowers. Below is a yellow waterlilly.

Below is a Cedar Juniperus Scopulorum (aka Rocky Mountain Juniper)

Last but not least is Joan's drawing of a giant daisy.

Believe it or not, there are a few more pages that Joan dedicated to their time in Yellowstone.

So on to Part 22!

A Yellowstone Interlude - The Old Faithful Inn - 2014 Author Tour

(To start at the beginning of this series of posts about my 2014 Author Tour, go here)

I've mentioned this before, but the Old Faithful Inn is one of my favorite places in the world. Sitting on the second or third floor mezzanine and watching the tourists go by, or reading a book, or writing, or having a drink...is nirvana to me. 

Whenever I stay here, I like to stay in the old part of the Inn (known as the old house). I don't mind that you have to go down the hall to use the bathroom and shower. Paige wasn't so thrilled about it, though. The newer sections have their own bathrooms, but they just don't feel so...filled with the spiritual residue of so much humanity.

(I know using the word 'residue' in conjunction with a hotel isn't always the best idea, but get your head out of the gutter...)

Looking up at the Inn's roof and widow's walk

The Inn. The big chimney on the left rises from the dining room.

The deck of the Inn. It's a nice place to hang out and watch Old Faithful go off.

The second night we were there, we sat and listened to this guy play the fiddle. I can't recall his name, but he was really good, and the music was a perfect part of the atmosphere. Listening to him in the ambiance of the Inn was pure bliss.

The dining room is nice to eat in, but it gets pricey at night. So we went for the breakfast buffet.

The Inn's dining room

Here's where I tried to artistically frame the big ol' clock with the mezzanine support beam thingies. A little blurry and didn't quite work out like I'd hoped. But there ya go.

Of all the red doors in the world, this is my favorite.

And last, but not least, the obligatory money shot

 You can see some more pictures I took (and better ones!) a few years back of the Inn here....and here....and here...and here.

Thanks for stopping by! Now on to the Lake Yellowstone Hotel.

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Yellowstone - Old Faithful Inn - Up on the Roof

Here are my photos of my trip up onto the roof of Yellowstone's Old Faithful Inn. The general public is not allowed beyond the 3rd floor mezzanine, but the bellhops can take two people with them with they go up to raise or lower the flags. I went up with Edward, the bellhop, who was a really great guy. A woman from France also tagged along.
Anyway, here's our destination (looking up from the 2nd floor deck).

We climbed a dizzying (but really damn cool) set of jungle-gym-like stairs up past the crow's nest (which you can see here) and up to these doors that lead to an outside set of steps that go up to the very top of the Inn. Here's Ed telling me not to go into the light.

Who's this dork up on the roof? Here's a hint: it's not Ed and it's not the nice woman from France.



We were really lucky this day. It had just stopped raining, and so we got to see this nice rainbow while Ed took down one of the flags.

Here's Ed taking down the American flag. I got to help him fold it up, which was neat.



And then, as if I wasn't already having the best time ever, Old Faithful geyser decides to go off, so we stayed on the roof to watch the eruption. The overcast sky made for a rather dramatic shot. The building in the distance is the Old Faithful Lodge, where I worked part of the summer of '91 and the summer of '92.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these. If you have any comments to add, feel free! Thanks for stopping by.

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Yellowstone - Old Faithful Inn - Up in the Crow's Nest

More pics of my 2010 trip to Yellowstone thanks to a Minnesota Artists Initiative Grant - this set focusing on the Crow's Nest in the Old Faithful Inn. It's closed to the general public, but the bellhops are allowed to take two people with them when they go up to raise and lower the flags on the roof. I'll post the roof pictures in the next post.
If you want to see my pictures of the Old Faithful Inn fireplace, go here. To see some other details of the Old Faithful Inn's interior, go here.

So this picture is looking up at the Crow's Nest from the 3rd floor mezzanine. A small orchestra used to play up here in the early 1900's while guests danced in the lobby approximately 70-feet below.

Here's a shot from inside the crow's nest. Note the chairs (kind of hard to see, since they blend in with the woodwork). Wouldn't it be cool to hang out up there, having a beer or two and chatting with friends? But not too much beer, because the steps going up to that spot are a bit dizzying.

The bellhop who took me up was named Edward. Here he is explaining how they varnish the woodwork with the blood of ungrateful tourists.

Here's looking out of the crow's nest into the Inn's interior. You can see the 3rd and 2nd floor mezzanines in this shot, as well as the stairs and door to Bat's Alley (if you squint - sorry it's so dark), where the bellhops live.

This is a shot of the back of the crow's nest - not visible to the public, but just as cool as the rest of it.

Hope you enjoyed these. Go here to see my adventure on the Old Faithful Inn's roof!

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More Yellowstone, Old Faithful Inn pictures

Some more pictures of the Old Faithful Inn from my Minnesota Artist Initiative Grant trip - this time pics of the beautiful interior woodwork. I'm not that good of a photographer, but here are just a few more reasons why I love the Old Faithful Inn.

Here's a photo (on a rather cloudy day) taken of the back of the Inn. The pictures of the interior that follow are all from the main part of the building beneath the flags.

This is the lobby at night. The lights look like candles, but they're electric and always have been, ever since the place was built in 1904.

Here's a close-up of one of the sets of lights. The squiggly lines in the logs are made from some kind of insect or worm that burrowed beneath the bark of the lodgepole pines.

Here are a couple shots of the intricate jungle-gym-like interior:

The balcony looking over the dining room. Note the light sconces on either side, because in the picture after this one I show what is on one of those sconces.

This is what's on the inside of one of the sconces - the names of employees who played on this balcony for the entertainment of the dining room guests in 1924. The opposite sconce lists players from 1926. I tried to find some info about these people in the archives in Gardiner, but came up empty. I of course may have missed something. If anyone knows anything about these folks, let me know!

I got to go up onto the roof with a bellman, and I'll post those pics at a later date.

Thanks for looking!



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Yellowstone - Old Faithful Inn Fireplace

I received a Minnesota Artist Initiative Grant in 2010, part of which paid for a research trip to Yellowstone. I took a bunch of pictures, and since they're just sitting on my laptop, I thought I'd share some of them in a few separate posts.

One of my all-time favorite places in the world is the Old Faithful Inn.  Robert Reamer and his team of workers built the Inn in 1904. What follows are some photos of its massive fireplace - 500-tons of rhyolite stacked nearly 80-ft high, it serves as one of the main supports of the roof.

There are actually eight separate fireplaces in this one structure; four large ones (one on each side) and four small ones (one in each corner). Only a few of the main ones are still functional due to the Hebgen earthquake in 1959 which caused the part of it to collapse in on itself.

Here's a bellman stoking the fire in one of the functional ones.

Here's one of the corner fireplaces (which are mainly used for stacking kindling these days.) The plastic spoon was not an original feature.

Some detail:

I believe the hooks and andirons are original.

The fireplace clock's pendulum. Made on site at the same time the inn was built.

The mechanics of the clock.

The view from behind the clock - taken from the 3rd floor mezzanine looking down at some of the writing desks on the 2nd floor mezzanine. - But for some reason, when I add this pic to the blog it comes out sideways. So turn your head to look at it...





Hope you liked the pictures! I'll post some more later.

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