Vacation '08, day 4

We get up kind of late (a noisy thunderstorm last night kept us awake) with the intention of exploring the Geyser Basin today. This means a drive from the east side of the mountains (where we are staying next to the lake) over to the west side of the park. We actually cross the Continental Divide twice as the spine of the continent meanders back and forth in a not-very-straight line. As you can see, there's still quite a bit of snow on the ground at this elevation. (A ranger told us yesterday that a late-spring snowstorm dumped almost six feet on the park only a couple of weeks ago.)

On the west side of the pass, there's a pretty cascade with a perfect photo deck. It's called Kepler Cascades. The massive fires of 1988 are still evident almost everywhere one looks in Yellowstone, but the new trees are growing quite happily and everything looks green and pretty.

We get down to the Geyser Basin with about thirty minutes before Old Faithful is due to erupt. The rangers post the "next show time" on a big white board on the door of the visitor's center. We start browsing around the visitor's center for a couple of minutes, but just then, Beehive Geyser (a large but less-predictable geyser) starts to erupt. The ranger announces the eruption to the room, which empties. Beehive typically erupts for only five minutes or so, so we didn't have time to get any closer than this, but we admire the impressive "jet" caused by the nozzle of built-up mineral residue.

We settle down to finish reading the visitor's handout and wait for Old Faithful to do its thing. It's the geyser nearest to the visitor's center, with a big viewing deck with benches in a big semi-circle around it. It goes off right on the dot -- no plus-or-minus ten minutes for us. It's an awe-inspiring sight, the hot steam and water shooting a hundred feet into the air. (Another one of those things that just isn't the same when you see it on teevee.) It's mid-morning, ten-fifty-something, but there's not very many people here yet... the benches are two-thirds empty.

Of course, everyone has seen pictures and film of Old Faithful, but one thing I had never realized is quite how many thermal features surround it. The hill just behind O.F. is lousy with geysers and hot springs. We take the boardwalk (which makes a little half-mile or so loop) across the river, up and around. Standing on top of Geyser Hill, looking around, you're pretty much going to see something steaming or erupting or doing something interesting. In addition to the big geysers, there's a bunch of smaller geysers that only erupt to a height of about six feet, but they obligingly do so every ten or fifteen minutes. The smell of sulphur is everywhere.

Castle Geyser, one of the big ones, has been erupting for twenty or so minutes (upstaging Old Faithful) but we take our time with the walk. We see smaller geysers Anemone and Sawmill do their thing. All the geysers have names, some quite fanciful.

Sawmill, in particular, erupts with a pulsing jet that makes a "BRR-brr" noise which sounds to me like a crosscut saw. I wonder if that's the origin of the name, or if I am the one being fanciful.

We could keep on the trail for another half-mile or so on the long loop, but we choose to cross back over the river (which is aptly named Firehole) because we're starting to get hungry. Castle Geyser, on the hill behind us, has finished erupting and is now in the noisy-steam phase, which the guidebook tells us will last thirty minutes or so. We have lunch (some really good cheeseburgers) at the soda fountain and buy some sweatshirts at the gift shop. Then, after lunch, we must walk back to the parking lot by the visitor's center, which takes us right by Old Faithful's viewing area again. This time the benches are PACKED, and tour buses are pulling up and discharging passengers in a hurry. It must be about to erupt again. Sure enough, as we get about halfway round, Old Faithful begins to erupt, and we stop to admire the awesome sight for the second time. We have great timing! We spend the afternoon exploring some of the other geyser basins. Biscuit Basin has a pretty little boardwalk that takes us around several very active features... Jewel Geyser erupts three times while we are there. There's an absolutely stunning hot spring called Sapphire Pool, which is an incredible shade of blue. The clear blue pools are the hottest; this one must be just a hair off of boiling. (Other pools have interesting greens and oranges and yellows, which is caused by minerals reacting with microorganisms and stuff like that, but the microorganisms tend to get killed off in the hotter pools.) The picture won't do it justice, I am sure, but I snap away anyhow. The area's funny name comes from the flat, round rock formations that used to be seen around this pool... sadly, they collapsed in an earthquake in 1959, so there's no longer any biscuits in Biscuit Basin.

Critter count for the day: We saw a big herd of bison grazing right smack by the road near the geysers. I rolled down the window to take this one... it was closer than I would have been willing to get on foot.

Mike and I are both in awe of the size of the ravens here. They are bold as brass, too, and quite talkative.

This chipmunk was quite willing to ignore us as long as we stayed on the path.

After all that walking, we are happy to come back to the cabin for a quiet evening. Ali thinks it is funny that her parents still get huggy-kissy sometimes... I haven't the foggiest idea why ;-)