August 10, 2016

After our first freezing night, we were slow to get going.  It took some time to completely warm up and feel somewhat alive.  But we’ve gotta move because we want to hit a big tourist spot before the masses arrive.  And it’s going to take some driving.  Our plan is to drive the big loop in the center of the park and hit up as many sights along the way.  Lots of geysers and springs and other hot-water-holes-in-the-ground.

You drive a lot in Yellowstone.  There isn’t one ‘central’ area and no easier way to get to all the spots.

First destination!  The famous one!

Parking wasn’t too terrible – we didn’t get in the main lot, but there was a close, slightly-hidden dirt lot that we snagged a good spot in.  We poked our head in the visitor center to get some maps and ask what we should definitely see in the park over the next couple of days and then headed out behind to wait for Old Faithful to blow.

There’s the geyser.  It doesn’t seem like much, just a smoking pile of dirt right now.

Since we had about forty(ish) minutes before it went off, we decided to go around the boardwalk a bit and look at other things in the area.  You can see where the main crowd is gathering to watch – they have some benches set up for folks to sit at.  We were still irritated with crowds in general, so we figured we’d find a better spot to watch.

The Boardwalk behind Old Faithful.  Looks like the perfect spot.

They have boardwalks all around the geyser areas in this park.  It’s due to the questionable nature of the ground – because of all the geothermic activity in the Yellowstone caldera, areas where there are actual open vents are fragile and there’s a good chance that you could fall through the ground just by walking in the wrong spot.  They have signs EVERYWHERE explaining this danger…but people still ignore them.

…our first sight at Yellowstone and I have no idea why it’s named this way.

It’s super cool though!  And by cool I mean it’s boiling hot acid water.  Definitely cool.

…and it drains into the river.  Pretty sure the river isn’t acidic as a result, but there’s probably better water sources to drink from.

Very pretty!  This was a pretty decent sized spring.  The water was boiling in spots here too.  It’s so pretty!

Upper part of this spring, in the shade, you can see the main vent that keeps this spring fed.

Ok.  Not enough time to walk the entire boardwalk here – Old Faithful is starting to steam more.

Old Faithful blowing it’s load!

…all over us!
We didn’t realize the boardwalk we were standing on was directly downwind from the geyser.  The water it sprayed up blew over us and the other folks watching – there was no warning of acid water or anything like that, so I wasn’t too worried.  Until the smell hit.  Farts.  We got covered in geyser fart water.

Still.  It was pretty cool.

Also, this place reminds me of the Eternal Bog of Stench from Labyrinth.

Ok, enough of that.  We drove over to the Upper Geyser Basin area to walk around and see more formations.

This river is pretty neat.  The weather is cool but the water itself is a bit warm, pleasantly so.  Across the bridge is is the main boardwalk we’re in this area to see.

Smoking land in the middle of mountain tops (we’re pretty high elevation here).

Where the geothermal activity is highest, the vegetation dies.  So cool.  Lots of vents, smaller geysers, and springs.

The water is a very pretty shade of cloudy turquoise.  Ringed with copper, that’s produced by thermoacidophilic bacteria.

It’s a pretty big spring.  The steam wafting off is probably a good indication of how hot the water is.  Plus acid.

Bacterial mats!  All of that orangey stuff is bacteria!

Colonies upon colonies of bacteria!  They make their own formations!  This is so gross and cool!

All of that is under water.  Just so freaking cool.  I have too many pictures of this.

The trees in the background grew before this place was as active as it is.  It’s pretty cool to think about – the caldera is active and in a constant state of change.  It’s hard for us to see on a ‘normal’ basis because it happens slowly, but there’s lot of evidence in the park that it’s different from when my Grandparents came when they were younger than me.

Another pretty pool.  I can understand the idea that stepping in here might appear nice, if all you can see is a pool of water…but it’s boiling, steaming, and the land around it is dead.  How those obvious ‘this isn’t ok for life’ signs can be ignored I have no idea.  Not to mention the numerous warning signs all over.

It’s hard to get pictures of some of these because the boardwalk is far enough away to be safe – necessary, of course, but pictures don’t capture how odd this hole is.  I guess this one erupts every now and again, but has been somewhat dormant lately.

This wasn’t marked as anything, but I thought it was cool.  Just a random, open hole in the ground.

A dried-up spring.  For whatever reason, the water source that fed this was diverted elsewhere underground.  Pretty neat.

Boardwalking!

More springs.

Not sure how that formed…pretty cool though.

It’s also a geyser.  Geothermal activity is super cool.

Yay!  Colors!  The colored springs are really neat to see in contrast to the dead areas around them.

Back to Portland to Yellowstone ::: On to Yellowstone Day 1 Part 2