 |
| Castle Geyser |
Our last stay in Yellowstone Park was in
Old Faithful, rather far away from Mammoth as we had to go south all the way on
the outer loop. On the way to Morris Junction, there were two interesting
spots, one the Obsidian Cliff – what we hadn´t found. We found a sign to the
place explaining that the whole cliff is made of obsidian (a black, shiny
stone, produced from lava), but the stone “collectors” had destroyed it,
chipping off stones from the cliff… anyway, we hadn´t find it so went to the
next attraction, the roaring mountain.
 |
| Sheepeater Cliff |
On the way we found a smaller
attraction, the Sheepeaters Cliff. This was a huge wall of hexagon shaped
granite. In the front there were huge rocks fell down from the wall, and as the
cliff is made of hexagon shaped columns, it looked like a giant had knocked over
some of these columns. Regarding the sign there, Sheepeater was called the
Indian tribe that had lived here before, therefore the name. Nearby the cliff
there was a river running, so it was a perfect picnic stop. Suddenly, a squirrel (golden-mantled ground squirrel) had appeared from the rocks. First I thought it was a chipmunk, as it had stripes on its back, but searching on the internet, it turned out it was a squirrel.The squirrel was running around, stopping suddenly (like all squirrels), then
running again, standing to his hind feet to look around… it was so cute, I
could hardly leave him.
 |
| golden-mantled ground squirrel |
But as my husband got eager to go further, we left Sheepeater Cliff
and drove further. Not far from the next
attraction, Roaring Mountain, I spotted something on the field that turned out
to be a sandhill crane. There were actually two birds, the second (maybe the
female?) was a bit shy, hiding behind a smaller bush. A bit further, we spotted
some geese grazing from the tall grass near the riverbank (I called them Niels
Holgerson Goose, but they are “officially” Canada Goose).
 |
| sandhill crane |
Roaring Mountain was
easy to spot, especially in the morning when the steam coming from the holes
and gaps of the mountain was seen more clearly. It made the mountain look like it
was sweating. It is called “roaring”, because sometimes the water leaving the
ground makes a hissing sound.
 |
| Roaring Mountain |
We stopped at Norris Jct. to see the Norris
Geyser Basin and the Artists Paintpot. The Norris Geyser Basin seems to be a
quite new discovery and a hotspot for the researchers as the view in the basin
changes every year, showing the actual volcanic activity of the area. The
people around here (in the western side) were much more than what we´d seen in
the eastern area, forest area and it was frustrating to line up for parking. At
Norris as well, we had gone there a few days ago, but it was so full, we gave
up. This time, we were relatively early (around 9am), so we still found a
parking space relatively fast.
As the basin is quite big, my husband
stayed outside in the museum (which, by the way shows the different volcanic
activities very picturesque) while I “ran” around the basin. Here, the entrance
is very dramatically made, as you first face a huge steam vent.
 |
| the entrance of Norton Geyser Basin |
The basin
further is full with holes filled with bubbling water or mud volcano and some
more steam vents. Overall the hot water flows across the whole basin, creating
small creeks of green, orange, brown colors.
 |
| Norton Geyser Basin |
Norris Geyser Basin is huge, there are many
trails, but as my husband was waiting for me outside, I just took the smaller
loop and went back to meet him in the museum.
Not counting the smaller stops, we directly
went from Norris to Old Faithful. Just as the Mammoth area, Old Faithful was as
well rather a touristic spot than a national park – very well organized, nice
and neat place. As it was lunchtime, we went to have lunch in the Inn´s buffet.
The variation of the food was plenty and the seats were looking directly to the
Old Faithful Geyser (it is called so as its eruptions are relatively reliable
and on-time; about every 80 minutes or so). After lunch, we stopped at the
geyser to see its eruption. As it was “smoking”, I thought it would erupt in
any minute, but we had to wait about 20 minutes. Altogether the eruption took a
few minutes, so it was like in Disneyland: you line up for hours for a 2 minute
ride. The attraction at Old Faithful was like a sport event: there were benches
around the geyser and it was completely full when the geyser erupted. This
scene was just as interesting as the eruption of the geyser…
 |
| The crowd to see Old Faithful Geyser... |
 |
| ...and the show! |
As the geyser-show had finished, the crowd
dispersed and we also headed to the reception to check-in. Although it was
before 4pm, we could check in our lodge. As the Old Faithful Geyser, the lodges
and other shops and restaurants were all in one place here, the parking lot was
huge and the place very crowded. Fortunately, there were parking spaces at the
lodges, so we didn´t have to carry our luggage.
Later we looked around the area – there
were souvenir shops, restaurants and on the other side of the village, the Old
Faithful Inn, a huge, wooden inn. It had about 5 stories and the interior was
all wood and logs, it looked beautiful. Unfortunately, not only the building,
but its price as well is high, so we stayed in the Lodges, which were just as
nice and clean as in any other part of the park.
 |
| inside Old Faithful Inn |
We parked at the Inn to leave
for the upper geyser basin. As well, we had only walked a small part of the
basin (about 2kms), but it was the most fantastic hike we´d had in the park;
the road is full with geysers and hot springs, so with every step you can see
something new. First we went to see the Castle Geyser, but we had to take a
smaller loop on the road as a bison had selected his spot to rest right next to
the trail. The Castle Geyser is the biggest cone geyser in this area erupts the
water up to 27meters high for about 20-30 minutes! We were lucky as the
eruption just started in a few minutes after we had arrived, although the
eruption is in every 10-12 hours. As for me, the cone geysers seem more
interesting as the water here erupts in on, powerful jet.
 |
| Castle Geyser |
Walking further we passed the Crested Pool
(a 13m deep, turquoise blue pool), Sawmill Geyser as we arrived to the next big
attraction, Grand Geyser. As the Grand Geyser is said to be erupted after the
Castle Geyser stops, we stopped at the geyser to wait for the eruption. There
are signs at the geysers saying the approx. time (in about 2-4 hours span) of
the next eruption. The one at Grand Geyser said to be erupted around 3 and 6pm.
It was around 4pm, so we waited. Unfortunately, finally we had to wait more
than an hour under the hot sun… after about 20 minutes, I went to look around a
bit: right next to the Grand Geyser were 2 little springs that started to
bubble heavily, which I thought might be a sign for the eruption, but turned
out not to be. A bit further was a pool called Belgian spring – regarding to a
tour guide, it is called so because a Belgian scientist “discovered” this
spring by falling into it when running towards the Castle Geyser. It was before
the boardwalks were set up in the park. The pool is nicely blue, but I wonder
if this Belgian guy had survived soaking into the hot water… A bit further were
a twin-pool, called Liberty Pool.
 |
| Liberty Pool |
The wait was like waiting for a bus: “shall
I wait or shall I go? If I go, it´s for sure that the bus will come in a minute
and I won´t have time to run back to it… If I stay…how long do I wait?” Finally
we gave up and were about to leave when finally the eruption started. It was
huge! Apparently, it is the largest predictable (eruption in every 7-15 hours)
geyser; the water reaches 60 meters (!) and lasts for a long, 15 minutes. It
was interesting as there is another, smaller geyser (that apparently has the
same canal as the Grand Geyser) that started erupting a few minutes after the
Grand Geyser. The Grand Geyser was erupting water perpendicularly, while this
other geyser shot the jet of water in an angle. As it was bright, shiny day,
the water spray created a beautiful rainbow as well. The two geysers and the
rainbow altogether looked like a spectacular water show of the nature.
 |
| Grand Geyser |
After the “show” had finished, we continued
our way towards the Morning Glory spring. On the way we had seen many other
geysers and pools, like the Chromatic Spring, Beauty Pool or the Grotto Geyser.
 |
| Beauty Pool |
We also had seen a beautiful footprint of a bear. A bit later we saw a
handwritten sign, informing that there had been sightings of a grizzly with
cubs, so it must have been a grizzly footprint. As any other animal, grizzlies
as well are the most dangerous when they are with babies. Actually, the next
day in Jackson Hole I saw an article in the local newspaper about a bear-attack
(the first one in the park in this year); apparently, August is the most
dangerous not only because of the cubs but as well because the bears become
more anxious and easily irritated as the time is closing up to look for food
before the winter.
 |
| grizzly footpring |
Morning Glory Spring is like the smaller
version of the Grand Prismatic Spring: its colors vary from yellow to deep
green. Moreover, as its name says, this spring has a shape of a morning glory
as it narrows down from the surface. According to the sign, the spring had been
originally turquoise blue in the middle, but due to vandalism (people throwing
cans and coins into the spring), the color of the water has changed to green.
Even so the spring is beautiful, but it is said that it might never change back
its color to its original blue.
 |
| Morning Glory Spring |
The trail from Morning Glory Spring
continues further, but from this point we headed back to the lodge. The trails
are creating loops, so we didn´t have to go back on the same way, we could take
another trail with some other more geysers.
The next day was our last in Yellowstone
and our hotel was in Jackson Hole, so we took the whole day to drive back the
about 120km road without any rush. This day the only destination was the Grand
Prismatic Spring, but as we´d seen the day before, it was completely packed, so
we decided to go early in the morning (before checking out) so we would be able
to avoid the crowd. It was a bad choice… as the spring is hot and the morning
is still cold, we couldn´t see anything from the huge steam coming out from the
spring.
 |
| Grand Prismatic Geyser in the morning |
Disappointed we went back to the lodge, packed our stuff, checked out
and went back again. (The spring was on the way anyway.) This time the view was
better, but to be honest, I was still a bit disappointed. As it can be shown in
the postcards, this spring is so huge (about 60ms in the diameter), that it
really looks great only from above. I was wondering why the park can´t make an
outlook for the spring on the nearby hill, because from the boardwalks, only
the massive size of the spring can be experienced, its real beauty can´t be
enjoyed fully. Anyway, it was very impressive, but we didn`t stay for long - after taking some pictures
we left to head to Jackson Hole.
 |
| one "leg" of the Grand Prismatic Geyser |
The weather was still beautiful, so we took
our time to stop by at the outlooks, especially in Grand Teton National Park.
Those sharp rocks of the Grand Teton are just breathtaking; no matter how many
times one sees them.
 |
| the beautiful Grand Teton National Park |
 |
| antler arch in the main square |
 |
| in Jackson Hole |
For more pictures, click here! → Yellowstone (part 6)
No comments:
Post a Comment