In the summer of 2006, my family went to Yellowstone National Park. I was so impressed by this amazing land that became the first national park in 1872. I never knew before I visited Yellowstone that it was one gigantic volcano. It last erupted 640,000 years ago! There were so many awesome sites to see there. We saw wildlife so diverse we could have built an ark, water shooting up from the earth, God’s natural fountain, pink, beige and brown bubbling mud pots, and waterfalls’ thunderous cascades all in this place.

The first day in Yellowstone we saw Old Faithful. We had to wait over an hour because it had just erupted before we got there. In the rain and cold, we sat and watched and waited. It started to bubble and went up, came down and went away. It teased us for about ten minutes. Then, it finally blew up into the sky. It was so exciting, I wanted to see more.

We walked on the boardwalk seeing geysers and pools everywhere. They all had interesting names like Grotto, Beehive and Tardy. Most of them were quiet at the time. One was named Lion Geyser. At first, I wondered why it was called that until it “roared” as I walked by, and I knew. I wanted to get to Morning Glory Pool but we were afraid that the black clouds that were overhead were going to drench us at any moment. There was no place for shelter. Miraculously, the rain held off. Morning Glory Pool was beautiful. The gorgeous blue and green colors were surrounded by a bit of brown because of irresponsible, careless people who, over many years, threw coins, food and garbage into it. Hopefully, people will learn by seeing the tainted color and stop their thoughtless behavior.

We headed back to the start and came upon a large group of people looking happy and excited. They sat on bleachers surrounding another geyser. Its name was Grand Geyser, and it shot up to heights of 200 ft. A lady sat patiently knitting as she told us her prediction of when Grand would blow. She was a volunteer “Geyser Gazer” and worked to help park rangers know of geyser activity through the park. We shivered for almost and hour in the cold and rain waiting for Grand to blow but it only teased us. Discouraged, I started back and couldn’t resist standing near the warm steam of Tardy Geyser. It felt like a sauna and hot tub as it splashed me. My mom thought it was curious that this little, unreliable by its name, geyser was suddenly active. Shouts from behind us came down the boardwalk. “Grand Geyser” is going off!” We ran back to where we stood for such a long time. I was lucky enough to watch it for twelve minutes wonder struck by its awesome power and glory. It was magnificent to behold God’s creation. People applauded the enormous, beautiful fountains of endless water. I will never forget that day!