Yellowstone National Park - Part 1 - The Geysers and Thermals

There were so many amazing things about Yellowstone Nat'l Park - the wildlife, the scenery and the geysers - so much to share with you that I decided to make two posts for the park. The first part will be about the geysers-saving the wildlife and the scenery for the next post.  Yellowstone National Park was established primarily because of its collection of geysers, hot springs, mudpots and steam vents.  An article in the National Geographic said that half the geysers in the world are in Yellowstone.  We saw steam vents almost immediately upon entering the park.

Some steam vents must have more water available to make steam - like this one below.

Old Faithful is probably the most famous of geysers in the park.  This picture was taken about 30 minutes before its eruption.

More and more steam is building up.  Geysers are hot springs with a narrow opening.  Because of the intense heat, pressure builds up until the water rises eventually overflowing.   

Here is a sequence of pictures when Old Faithful was at the height of its eruption the day we saw it.

A pamphlet about the geysers said Old Faithful erupts more frequently than any other of the big geysers although it is not the largest or most regular geyser in the park. 

This area was called Roaring Mountain.  This was a very large area of steam vents.  Because there was very little water available, the steam is almost gone by the time it reaches the surface.  If you listen, you can hear a hissing noise from the steam.

The Mammoth Hot Springs area was so fascinating.  The water from the hot springs rises through the limestone and creates amazing rock formations.  Because the water continually flows, the rock formations can change frequently.

There was a lot of flowing water and a some steam but there was also some pools.

These mineral deposits were strangely shaped and colored.

It seemed like we were in another world.

As the water and minerals flowed over the side of the mountain, it created these awesome looking terraces.

This is a view of the side of the mountain below Mammoth Hot Springs from the road below it.

One day we visited the West Thumb Geyser Basin near Yellowstone Lake which you can see in the background of this picture.

It was interesting to find out that the color of these pools is determined by the thermophiles (heat-loving microorganisms) that grow in them.

The pool below is called Black Pool.  We wondered why it was called that because it didn't appear black.  We found out that at one time the water temperature was lower.  The lower temperature allowed dark thermophiles to grow in the pool causing it to appear black.  The water temperature has since increased and changed the kind of microorganisms.

The rock formation in the Black Pool made it seem to have two separate areas.

We are enjoying the sunshine and a little breeze.

One of the pools in the West Thumb Geyser are was called Seismograph Pool.  No one knows why but it is thought the pool was renamed after the 1959 Hedgen Lake (7.5) earthquake just to recognize that the quake had happened. 

The steam from these pools indicate how hot the water is but the Seismograph Pool was one of the few that had a sign posting the average temperature.

There a lot of cones created by the mineral deposits within the steam vents.

Some cones look like an open vent but some, like the one below, are filled to the brim with water.

This cone, the Fishing Cone, is currently under water.  During the spring and early summer, the lake water levels rise from melting snow and cover the vent.  When exposed, the temperature of the cone's water averages 199 degrees F.

These geysers are called the Lakeshore Geyser.  They are both underwater and sometimes the smaller one is not exposed until mid to late August.

There are several places in the park that you can see mudpots.  This one is called the Thumb Paint Pots.  The water in the mudpots look like wet clay mud.  Seems this is caused by the acidity of the water in them.

When this geyser was named, Percolating Spring bubbled vigorously like a coffee pot.  It was so weird to see boiling water in a pool.

We are currently in Baker City, OR, visiting family - Bill's sister, Glenyth, her children and grandchildren.  We plan to arrive home on Sunday, June 27th.   After we get home, there will be another post for this trip about traveling in MT, ID and OR.

Yellowstone National Park - Part 2 - The Wildlife and Scenery

Yellowstone Nat'l Park was the first national park in the United States.  It was established in March of 1872.  It's boundaries take in parts of three states - Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.  We stayed in an RV park in Island Park, ID, and traveled to West Yellowstone, MT, to the park entrance and within miles of entering the park, we were in Wyoming.

There were so many amazing things about the park - the wildlife, the scenery and the geysers - so much to share with you that I decided to make two posts for the park.  The first part will be about the wildlife and the scenery - saving the geysers for the next post.  Within 7 miles of entering the park, we got to see the buffalo and their calves which are referred to by rangers as red dogs.

These two buffalo were off by themselves.

The buffalo looked pretty shaggy as they are still shedding their winter coats.

One afternoon the buffalo were crossing the road in front of us so we got some really close pictures.  In fact, the buffalo always had traffic stopped or slowed when they were spotted.  We called it buffalo traffic control.

Here's an example of buffalo traffic control.

There was an eagle nesting right by the road.  There were signs that asked tourists to not stop but people just got so excited to see the huge nest and eagle that they seemed to forget how to read.

Bill whistled to get the attention of this elk grazing by the road and the elk only looked at us.  He wasn't startled at all.  Not like the elk he hunts at home.

This was the biggest herd of elk that we saw in the park.

This yearling still needs his mama.

This elk had short, velvet covered spikes.

It was exciting to see this big bull.  He was a traffic stopper for sure.

There were pelicans in Yellowstone Lake.

We had just said we hadn't seen any deer and then we saw this one.

We were really excited to see this fox walking on the edge of the road.  In fact, he walked by the truck and we took pictures through an open window.

Since we had only read about red fox being in the park, we showed our picture to a ranger who told us this was a red fox.  It is what they call a blonde coated red fox.

We saw a lot of the little creatures like this one.

We had just seen antelope high on the slopes but couldn't get a picture when we came around a corner to see these sheep.  There were about five of them.  They looked shaggy, too.

There were many, many rivers and lakes in the park. This is the Madison River that you travel along when going into the park through the west entrance.  On our first day in the park, we saw a wolf by the side of a bridge that crossed this river.  There was actually a woman who had gotten out of her car and walked to within 15 feet of the wolf to get a picture.  We didn't get a picture but felt safer in the truck.

We drove to the north entrance so we could go to Gardiner to see the original entrance arch.  On our way we went through some high passes and saw some beautiful scenery including mountains, valleys and lakes.  We were actually looking for bears but we never got to see one during our three days in the park.

These pretty falls were named Undine Falls.  Undine Falls tumbles over 100ft in a series of three shorter drops. This is one of the easier waterfalls to see as it's right off the Upper Loop Road.

Gardiner River ran in the gorge by the falls.

We had a beautiful, sunny day when we went to Yellowstone Lake.  You can see the Absaroka Range of mountains in the background.

Lee wanted to check out the view and water temperature.  There are some hot spots in the lake but it was quite cold along this shoreline.

There were a lot of arms that ran into the lake but this was probably Stevenson Island near the Bridge Bay.  We had lunch at Lake Village and were surprised at the size of the village.  It could be classified as a small town.

We stopped at West Thumb basin to see some hot springs and found this outstanding view of the springs and Yellowstone Lake.

Wildfires in Yellowstone National Park in September of 2009 covered 6,500 acres.  Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468 square miles or 2,219,520 acres.  Looks like 6500 acres is a 

small part of the whole and they say it is the natural cycle of its ecosystem.

 

We saw burned stands of trees in many places - some being newer than others.

 

Even in the spring and summer, sudden snowstorms can cause road closures.  We ran into a snow storm when we drove on the Upper Loop to look for bear.  Not all of the winter snow has melted but the storm we encountered didn't accumulate on the ground.

That blue sky was a sucker hole.  It was pretty much cloudy and cold all day when we were in the Upper Loop but this scene was worth putting up with the weather.

The North Entrance is the first official entrance of Yellowstone National Park.  We drove to the city of Gardiner just outside the park to have lunch and ask around to see if there was any information about the Yellowstone Trail.  Part of the promotion for the YT, was the destination of Yellowstone National Park.  Unfortunately, we didn't find any signs or anyone who knew the history of the YT in the Gardiner area.  However, we were glad to see the first official entrance to the park.

We overhead another tourist telling someone that she had been told that you have to see Yellowstone Nat'l Park because there is no substitute for seeing it.  We would agree 100 percent.