Yellowstone Day 2: Part 4

Our next stop was at Black Sand Basin, and from there we continued on to the Grand Prismatic Spring.  I am lumping the two together mainly because they are very similar.

Firehole River with a small geyser erupting on the bank.  Isn't it interesting how one side of the river has the bacterial mats and the boiling water, and the other side is a normal river bank?



Mudpots



Rainbow pool








I love this one--it looks like lava


The Grand Prismatic Spring



The last stop of the day was at Lewis Falls.  We had just enough daylight left to be able to enjoy this beautiful waterfall

Yellowstone Day 2: Part 3

By the time we finished with West Thumb Geyser Basin, the weather had improved dramatically.  It was still a little chilly, but it felt perfect to me.  Our next stop was Old Faithful--you can't go to Yellowstone and not see Old Faithful!

Old Faithful was erupting when we arrived at the basin, so we had 90 minutes to kill before the next eruption.  The problem with that is 90 minutes doesn't give enough time to do the full tour of the Upper Geyser Basin...but we certainly tried to see as much as we could!

We saw the most people at Old Faithful.  I couldn't believe how many people were there, especially because we really hadn't encountered any big crowds throughout the day.  It just goes to show how big the park really is!

As we started out our walk around the geyser basin, we saw a geyser beginning to erupt--and it was pretty high.  As we continued walking toward it (but not to it--we were already on a different path) it continued erupting.  In fact, it probably erupted for a good twenty minutes or so (most likely longer).  By the time we reached it, the geyser--named Castle Geyser--was ebbing but still had quite the height and spray.  It was beautiful and amazing to watch.  Sadly, after seeing Castle, Old Faithful was a bit of a letdown.  Castle just put Old Faithful to shame.  We did see many beautiful geysers though!

















Note: All of these geysers have water in them; the water was just very clear in some of the geysers



Firehole River--it is amazing to see the hot water flow right into the river.  This river also runs through our next stop, and it also has the geysers right at shoreline.








I can't remember the name of this geyser, but the small one was erupting and the bigger one was due to erupt between 7pm and 10pm that evening.  We seriously debated going back to see it, but in the end the three hour window and exhaustion won out. 


 








Old Faithful erupting!



This pool/geyser was fascinating to watch.  It is located next to Castle geyser, and the bubbles would rotate in a half circle around the edge of the pool.  There wasn't a sign to explain the phenomenon so I don't know why it does that.  Even still, it kept us entertained!


This is the back of Castle Geyser as we were headed to Old Faithful.  I thought it was a pretty cool picture because you can see the spray from the eruption


The front of Castle and you can also see a small spurt from the smaller geyser in front

Yellowstone Day 2: Part 2

After the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, our next planned stop was the Mud Volcano, but as we were driving to it we were caught in a stretch of "controlled burn ahead: No stopping for the next six miles."  All turnouts were coned off, including the one to the Mud Volcano.  I was disappointed--but that just leaves something for the next visit!

As we were driving down that six mile stretch, Joshua spotted a wolf.  It was pretty far--the other side of a meadow and across a river.  He stopped in the middle of the lane (since we couldn't pull off) and got a few pictures.  At first, due to the scrawniness of the wolf and the distance, I thought it was a coyote, but sure enough, a wolf it is!  So while the badger made J's day, the wolf made mine!  I just wish we had more time to look at it, or that it was closer.



Next we followed Yellowstone Lake to West Thumb/West Thumb Geyser Basin.  When we arrived there, I had to use the restroom so J dropped me off and then went to park.  When I got out of the bathroom he had brought our sweatshirts out of the car with him.  Although it was cloudy and slightly chilly, I didn't want to bother carrying around a sweatshirt that I wouldn't use.  I think my exact words were: "why did you get the sweatshirts?  It's a little chilly now, but once we start on our hike we will warm right up."  Nevertheless, I took the sweatshirt and we went a-hiking.

I was eating my words within ten minutes or so as the weather turned colder.  It began to rain, then hail.  I was having fun (I just pulled my hood up and continued snapping pictures--I was able to get some amazing shots) but Josh, who didn't have a hood, wasn't having as much fun.  He helped protect my camera from being pelted by the hail (there were some pretty big hailstones).

Then as quickly as it started, the rain and hail ended.  Although my camera was a little worse for the wear.  Between the steam from the springs and the rain/hail, something must have gotten into my camera and the on/off button stopped functioning for about half an hour or so.  I have a pretty hardy camera though, and it works like a charm again.






Mudpot--and look, we got it exploding!








It empties right into the lake.  The lake is recreational, meaning people boat, swim, fish, etc.

These are the shots I was able to get while it was hailing.  These geysers are in the lake along the edge of Yellowstone Lake at West Thumb. 








The wind kept blowing the steam from this one right into my camera so my lens would fog up and I had to wipe it down to clear it



 



It looks so nice and deceptively inviting...I wanted to just jump in!