WY (Yellowstone Nat'l Park - part 1)

After Grand Teton I went to Yellowstone.  It was not only a large park, but so much to do!  I initially was going to spend one day there, but ended up spending 2 long days there.

I didn't stop much on the drive to Old Faithful since it was already getting late, but here are a few photos from the initial drive up.  Yellowstone is in a higher elevation than a lot of other parks - around 7000 ft through much of it.  Given that it is also located pretty far north (WY and MT), it was easy to believe that there was snow still along the side of the road in some places, though it was pretty comfortable during the day.

This is Lewis River Canyon.  In 1988 there was a fire with winds gusting over 80 mph, which propelled the fire quickly through the drought-stricken vegetation.  Fire easily rode the wind and jumped the Lewis River to ignite fire spots on the other side.

This is Shoshone Lake.

At the higher elevations (>8000 ft) there was quite a bit more snow.  Almost no snow was at the lower elevations of the park.

This is one of a couple places where I crossed the Continental Divide.  Elevation at the divide was 8262.

These are the Keplar Cascades.

By the time I arrived at the Old Faithful Lodge (where I had planned to spend the night) it was 8:30 PM and had been sold out.  Too cold to camp and with no other lodges with vacancies in the park, I decided to forget about lodging for a few hours and waited on the benches for Old Faithful to go off.  It goes off every couple of hours, usually with a window of 15 minutes either way.  I waited about 40 minutes with others and around 9:30 PM it went off. :-)  I watched it again in the AM.


Here is Old Faithful in the sunset.  Incredible sight to see!

These are other small geysers off in the distance that I will see in the morning.

I met a young ranger scout who told me all about the difference between grizzlies and black bears. :-)  We were waiting together for Old Faithful to go off and he showed me some of his pictures from the day before.

 

Then I walked down to the Lodge (a different building from where I parked) and had a nice and rather expensive dinner.  Afterwards, I couldn't find the lot that had my car and so security walked me over to it as it was very dark (no lights in the parking area) and there are grizzlies in the area that I didn't want to accidentally run into, even if unlikely.  I was tired, but drove up through the north and then west end of the park to find lodging and there was a nice place not too expensive with vacancy. :-)

The next morning, I drove back to Old Faithful as I wanted to do these hikes before the crowds came (it was a holiday weekend).  On the way, there was still a lot to see and do!  Here are some bison.

Yellowstone scenery is great no matter where you are!

I went up a 1-way road just past Madison to view the Firehole Falls.  Near the top I saw an elk.

This is it.  I actually had to drive through it twice as I missed it the first time around (no sign and no where to pull off and view it - one of the few places that didn't have signs in the park).

I made it back to Old Faithful in time for it's 9 AM eruption. :)

Just past Old Faithful, you can walk on a boardwalk for a few miles and view a number of other pools and geysers.  There are several trails that loop and all connect together.  Hard to get lost, especially with all the other people on the trails.  There were hundreds of geysers along the path and the not-so-lovely smell of sulfur filled the air.  (I tried not to breath too much of it in because it can't be that good for you.)

There were signs everywhere to stay on the trail as you could get severe burns from falling through the thin thermal layer.  I was surprised to see so many young kids running free on the trail in this area.  My kids would be holding my hand just in case...  I didn't see any bears at Yellowstone, but I was also more cautious here than at other parks - especially in the early morning and late at night during quieter hours and feeding time.

These are some of my favorites along the Upper Geyser Basin.

Vault Geyser:

Giantess Geyser:

Pump Geyser:

Sponge Geyser:

Doublet Pool:

This is the Aurum Geyser.  It wasn't erupting while I was there.  They tried to post times when you could expect them to erupt, but most were within a 3-5 hr period (and who wants to sit at the benches and wait all day?).  During the Aurum Geyser eruptions, the water rises above 20 ft into the air, and like Old Faithful, it lasts about a minute.

There are cone and fountain geysers.  The one above is a cone geyser and the most famous is Old Faithful.  A cone geyser has narrow openings (vents).  Under pressure, this opening can act like a nozzle, spouting a steady stream of water.  Over long periods of time, silica builds around the vent opening, creating the cone.

The other is the fountain geyser (like the Sawmill and Grand Geysers listed below).  The wide openings (vents) are often mistaken for hot springs, though you don't want to be sitting in it when it goes off!!  Water collects in the vent before and during eruptions, and erupting water and steam pass through the pool.

Here is a picture of both types.  The fountain is on the left and the cone is on the right.

Beach Spring:

 Ear Spring (yes, it looks like an ear):

 Lion Geyser group (if you look close, you can see several):

 The popular Sawmill Geyser:

 Spasmodic Geyser (name needs no explanation...):

 This was one of my favorites!!

Grand Geyser (another popular one, but it didn't go off when I was there).  It's the world's tallest predictable geyser.  A full eruption of boiling water and steam can last 9-12 minutes and reach heights of 180 feet!!!

I will say that the Economic Geyser (shown below), although an interesting red, was not very appealing compared to the deep blues and oranges...

Here is Beauty Pool:

And this is neighboring Chromatic Pool.  Beauty Pool shares an underground link with Chromatic Pool.  When Beauty Pool is full, Chromatic Pool is much lower (and vice versa).  The vivid colors of the pools' basin and runoff channels are created by microscopic lifeforms.  They survive and actually thrive in an environment that would be lethal to us and most other living creatures!

Blue and clear water is extremely hot (199+ F) and may exceed boiling point.  Yellow color indicates 140-160 F, green color is 130-140 F, and red to black is 80-120 F.  (The most beautiful are also the most dangerous.  Isn't that true of many things?)

Here is the Giant Geyser, which can erupt 50 times/year or once/year.  When active, it is one of the largest in the world, soaring 250-300 ft above the ground.  The unpredictability is due to interconnections between it and the other geysers and hot springs of the nearby Grotto Group.

Here is the bubbling Catfish Geyser:

 And the Grotto Geyser:

And my favorite - Morning Glory Pool (well worth the extra couple miles of hiking!!)

Morning Glory Pool is losing its brilliant color.  Through ignorance and vandalism, people have tossed objects (from garbage to coins) into the hot spring, clogging the vent and lowering the temperature.  Brown, orange, and yellow algae-like bacteria thrive in the cooler water, gradually turning the vivid aqua-blue to a murky greenish-brown.

The last ones to see were Daisy Geyser and Splendid Geyser.  I didn't show all of the geysers as that would be way too many pictures and geyser overload, but I think these captured this area well.  There will be many more geysers and hot springs to come!!!

Finally, on the way back to Old Faithful, I passed Castle Geyser.  The massive cone is a sign of old age.  After thousands of years of eruptions, scalding water deposited silica mineral formation.  The silica rich water has destroyed much of the pine forest nearby, turning the area into a thermal desert.  You can see tree skeletons in some of the pictures.

 

I threw in some videos of bubbling mud and water, small eruptions, and other such activity.  They go with some of the pictures above, but I thought it better to put them all together for your viewing pleasure.  LOL

Hopefully, some of these videos got you more excited than the pictures did. LOL