Michelle is with us! We awoke early today to very cold temperatures. It was about 20 degrees at 7am. We had both heaters going in the Airstream and it was almost 70 degrees inside. But it was not as cold as 20 degrees in the southern states. We had breakfast and loaded up Fiona with snacks, Maggie's bed, and Maggie, for a day long tour in Yellowstone. The weather forecast called for it to warm up to nearly 60 and the sun was bright. It turned out to be a beautiful day.
Entering from the West Entrance of the park, we drove along the Madison River where we saw many fly fishermen casting their flies in the river.
Madison River
We stopped and took some photos with Mt. Haynes in the background.
Maggie, Michelle and Lib at Mount Haynes, Elevation 8,235 ft.
50% of the world's geysers are in Yellowstone Park
Of course the reason for all these geysers is that Yellowstone is sitting atop a large volcano. There is molten lava below which heats water that runs through fissures in the rocks and the heated water rises with force as the steam pressure builds in the fissures. The fissures are created by many small earthquakes. Yellowstone has more earthquakes than any place in the U.S. except California. When you consider that it is only a small corner of the northwestern Wyoming, that is astounding.
One of the most significant geyser areas is called the Grand Prismatic Spring. The steam boils up in the air and then sun creates a prism effect turning the steam into many different colors. The geyser vents are surrounded by pools of very hot, sometimes boiling, water. The colors come from the minerals brought up by the pressurized water as it moves up through the rock formations.
The grounds the geysers are on are unstable and signs warn you of falling through the ground into boiling water. Since this would be unpleasant we stayed on the very nice walkways the park has built. They must accommodate thousands of visitors each day.
It was time to move down to the Old Faithful area. On the way, a buffalo walked by Fiona in the opposite lane and we got some good pics.
Michelle took this photo of me taking the photo below. You can see how close the buffalo was. I kept my left hand on the window button!
We made it to the Old Faithful area in time to visit the museum with displays illustrating how the geysers work. Then, right on schedule, Old Faithful erupted. About 500 people were there to watch.
We think 1/3 to 1/2 are international visitors. We believe the largest percentage of international visitors are Chinese.
We then went into the Lodge and had some coffee and a snack to fortify ourselves for the hike around the nearby geyser fields. Castle Geyser did not erupt while we were there. Obviously, it is named from the formation that has build up around the geyser vent.
Castle Geyser
Our hike took us up from Old Faithful along the geysers in the Upper Geyser Basin. Several other geyser pools are in this basin.
Each geyser pool is different. This one has very clear water in it.
Some of the pools have interesting formations caused by the minerals
There are living bacteria growing in some of the very hot pools
Some of the vents have actually been stopped up by visitors throwing coins in them. I suppose people think they geysers are like a "wishing well."
Next we moved on to the see the Waterfalls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This is located on the east side of the park about in the middle of the park. It was about a 45 minute drive from Old Faithful. There are two waterfalls, an upper and a lower waterfall. They are both very large; you would not want to white water raft these!
If you look carefully you will see a viewing platform at the top of the fall on the right side. We hope to go there tomorrow!
We all agreed this is the most spectacular sight we've seen. This is the "signature" scene you've probably seen in all promotional materials for Yellowstone. I had to squeeze in between about 20 Chinese photographers to get this photo.
Michelle's photo of the lower falls from her cell phone. This photo shows the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
Michelle and Lib at the Lower Falls
We rode back to West Yellowstone and made a short trip to the grocery store and then home to Cream Puff. We broke out some snacks, drinks and watched Bama win their game. French and Carolyn are there! And the Ole Ball Coach beat the Georgia Bulldogs. Wynn Teasley and Dale Hair ain't gonna like this. Now, we are ending the day by watching Kentucky take Florida to three overtimes. Finebaum will be talking about Muschamp on Monday.
Tomorrow we are going back to the park.
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