Today we decided to venture out in the direction of Old Faithful to hike to Mystic Falls. We knew there would be a lot of people in that area on a holiday weekend, but we also knew that once we hiked more than half a mile from any parking lot the crowds would dwindle. The only concern was finding a place to park. We reached the Fairy Falls Parking Lot and it was filling up rapidly and I had remembered reading that you could reach the Mystic Falls trailhead from there. My recollection was that it was only a half mile, but I was WAY wrong. It would have been at least eight miles. We stopped and looked at the big map on the Fairy Falls Trail and none of it made sense which should have been our hint to stop and go back, but we marched forward like good soldiers. We tried to check our phones (so we could look cool like all the kids taking selfies everywhere), but there was no data access (we should have downloaded the Google Maps while we had WiFi access). At 1 1/4 miles we finally turned around and went back to the truck.
We went to the next parking lot, the Biscuit Basin Parking Lot, which was the correct parking lot. It was much less crowded and within three tenths of a mile we were so alone that I started worrying about all of the “You are in Bear Country” signs and stopped and pulled our bear spray out of our backpacks. This was a beautiful 2.5 mile hike (round trip) through wooded land and there wasn’t too much elevation change (167 feet according to our hiking application).
Mystic Falls 
Looking Down River from the Falls
When we returned to the Biscuit Basin parking area we walked the boardwalk loop to look at all of the geysers and hot springs in that area.
Mustard Spring 
Sapphire Pool 
Sapphire Pool
Since we were so close to the Old Faithful area we decided to drive through and see how busy it was. Our expectations were exceeded. It was total chaos. We turned around immediately and drove back out of the area. By the time we got back to the Midway Geyser Basin Parking Lot, the line of cars coming in from the North was probably a mile long. Just North of that area, we whipped into a picnic area and were able to grab a table and enjoy another lunch that Beth packed.
On our way back to the campground we spotted a group of three female Elk (cows) along the Madison River. Now when I state “we spotted”, what I really mean is that we slammed on our brakes when traffic came to a complete halt.
A “Bull” and a “Cow” 
Elk Cow in Madison River 
Two Elk Cows Along the Madison River