Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful Area - 8/13/14

Our visit today to our nation's first national park was as fabulous as we had hoped it would be! The areas we saw are:

• Firehole Canyon Drive
• Biscuit Basin
• Black Sand Basin
• Parts of the Upper Geyser Basin (including Old Faithful)
• Firehole Lake Drive

Yesterday we picked up information at the Visitor Center in West Yellowstone. The park ranger there gave us a great overview of the areas we would want to see during our stay here. With three million visitors a year, Old Faithful is one of the most popular features in the Park so we decided to start with that area.

Here is a map of the park.

Firehole Canyon Drive: Traveling south from Madison to Old Faithful is a small 2-mile, one-way road on the right, Firehole Canyon Drive. The road runs along the Firehole River and features beautiful canyon and river views. Here are some photos:

Firehole River.

Firehole Falls.

Swimming area.

Hydrothermal Features: Yellowstone preserves the largest collection of hydrothermal features (hot springs, geysers, mudpots, and fumaroles) on the planet! The majority of the world's active geysers are in the Upper Geyser Basin (including Old Faithful) in large part because molten rock (magma) is only 3-8 miles from the surface. Four other countries have large groups of hydrothermal features: Russia, Chile, New Zealand, and Iceland. 

Biscuit Basin: Following are photos of some of the features there (3 miles north or Old Faithful).

Sapphire Pool's crystal-clear, bright-blue water is gorgeous. A volcanic eruption in 1959 (registering 7.5) with an epicenter a few miles from here, caused the pool to violently erupt. Today it is calm, but remains above 150 degrees. 

Mustard-colored creek feeding into Sapphire Pool.

Thermophile (heat-loving microorganisms) form these vivid colors in the geothermal waters.

Jewel Geyser erupts every 7-10 minutes. Close up in between eruptions.

Jewel Geyser erupting.

Avoca Spring.

Black Sand Basin:  Don't miss the Emerald Pool here! This area is1 mile north of Old Faithful. 

Cliff Geyser.

Iron Spring Creek.

Emerald Pool.

Sunset Lake.

Old Faithful: This geyser erupts more frequently than any of the other big geysers, about every 90 minutes (with variations between 50 and 127 minutes). An eruption lasts from 1.5 to 5 minutes...the one we saw today was about 4 minutes (as a boy next to us was timing it). It expels 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of boiling water to a height of 160 to 184 feet. It's amazing!

Erupting.

We did not see the other geysers in this area, but plan to return in the next week to do so as there are many more in this general locale.

Firehole Lake Drive: Traveling north from Old Faithful about 2 miles from Midway Geyser Basin is this 2-mile, one-way, narrow road that passes geysers, hot lakes, and hot springs.  This is Firehole Spring...it keeps bubbling...sometimes big bubbles, sometimes small.

Surprise Pool...deep blue color (photo does not do it justice!)

Great Fountain Geyser. Eruptions here can be 100 to 200 feet high and last 45 to 60 minutes in a series of burst. It takes 10 to 14 hours to rebuild for an eruption.

We saw a small eruption.

Sadie liked it, too, but she is not allowed out of the car here. :-(

White Dome Geyser.

Young Hopeful Geyser.

Firehole Lake is the largest hot spring in the area with vents that supply water that averages 158 degrees F.

Steady Geyser that erupts continuously.

Black Warrior Lake.

Learning about and actually seeing hydrothermal features today was fabulous. They are so very beautiful and this is such a unique area of our planet. What a privilege! We are looking forward to further exploring this amazing National Park in the next week. Stay tuned for future posts.

Admission is per $25/vehicle; other rates apply for motorcycles and snowmobiles. Annual passes are also available. With John's Senior Pass, admission is free. 

Website: www.nps.gov/yell