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Yellowstone Vacation, July 2002

In 2002, I did something unusual (at least for me).  I took a LAND TRIP!  Not a boat in sight! 

I flew into Salt Lake City with my teenage niece, where we met up with my parents who were already there, and we had fun sightseeing my old chomping grounds and having a family reunion so I could see some of the cousins I haven't seen for 30 years.

  Then it was off to Yellowstone for a week.  My Parent's drove from Houston to Salt Lake in their surburban, so I didn't have to rent a car, and we drove to the Old Faithful Inn where we stayed for 6 nights.  It was fun staying at the inn, but WAY overpriced for what you get. 

We pretty much decided that NEXT time we'll stay at the Canyon Cabins since those are pretty much in the middle of the park and much more convient to get to places than from the Old Faithful area.

I haven't been to Yellowstone since I was a little girl, so I was really excited.   We stopped at all the major geyser basins, and I spent lots of money in the shops.   I though about that sleeping giant under our feet (that supervolcanoe just getting ready to blow it's top and and cause major problems for the North American continent (if not the entire world).  Last time one of these "Supervolcanoes" errupted, it almost caused humanity to go EXTINCT--there were only a few thousand people who servived on the entire Earth.  Kind of scary.  Nobody knows the warning signs of an impending explosion since nobody in recorded time and witnessed one.  Hmmm, I wonder if boiling geysers, lots of earthquakes, and upheaving calderas might be a "sign" of something happening.  They've already figured out the size of the lava chamber under the current caldera, and it's starting to push upwards from pressure.  

Has Yellowstone always had the geothermal features it has now, or is this something relatively new (geologically), that might actually be a signal of an impending eruption within the next few millenia.