Back to July 8th & 9th,
July 10th
, continue to July 11th
Madison - Old Faithful - Grant Village
July 10th, 1:00PM
odometer start : 3149.2
I'm now in Yellowstone, and spent the night in a filled campground sharing
a place with 2 cyclists who've been on the same route as I. They were already
sharing their site with a pickup truck camper.
Today I tore up to Black Sands Basin to catch a guided tour of some of the
hot springs then went to Old Faithful and got there 15 minutes before one
eruption wandered around the area hoping a bigger geyser would erupt and saw
Old Faithful again. There are hot springs all along the area between Madison
Junction and Old Faithful which I may spend the entire day exploring. I hope
I can get to Yellowstone Lake tonight though I may wind up back at Madison,
where I was last night. Suppose I should go back to the visitor center and
take in some of the stuff there. Did notice there's a topo map of the park
there - that deserves some attention.
Lot to do - guess I'll get moving.
July 11th, 9:50AM
odometer start: 3214.3
Yellowstone is a park made in homage to the Great Gasoline God, and I
think Park Service will be in for a long letter about what I think they should
do. But first the positive stuff.
I spent all of yesterday exploring the hot springs area from Old Faithful
west. Old Faithful itself didn't impress me too greatly which explains why
all the pictures of it I've seen have never impressed me much. Its fame comes
from its frequency and periodicity allowing reasonably close eruption
forecasts making it a boon to parents with squirmy kids. On the tour of the
Black Sands Basin yesterday morning the guide, who is the naturalist most
involved with the hot springs (chief geyser gazer), told us that Giantess had
started to erupt. Giantess is considered by most to be the most spectacular
geyser in the park, but it has active periods only 1 - 5 times a year, each
lasting 12 - 36 hours. I watched it for an hour but it stayed in a steam
phase, so I missed out on the water phase. Much prettier than the geysers are
the pools formed by the hot springs. Many are quite deep giving a beautiful
blue color in the center and as water runs out in all directions around the
edge the temperature gradient results in bands of colored algae and bacteria.
One of my favorite geysers was in one of the pool areas. It was a tiny
thing and erupted 5 - 8 ft high every 2 - 3 minutes. It was so small it
didn't even have a name, it just sat by the parking area being ignored by most
of the people who passed by.
Now, some of the negative comments. Campgrounds this time of year are
normally filled around noon. Standard procedure is to get up in the morning,
drive to the campground you want to stay at, claim a spot, then drive to
whatever you want to see that day. Can't be done on a bike. In fact, trying
to see the park is a real hassle. Yesterday I got up, rode from Madison to
almost Old Faithful (16 mi) to catch a guided tour at 1000, went to Old
Faithful for more info and maps, went almost all the way back to Madison and
worked my way back visiting everything along the way, had dinner at Old
Faithful then went to Grant Village (17 miles and 2 crossings of the divide)
through rain and honking cars getting there at 2045. Fortunately I was able to
find a camp site and got tent up before it got pitch black.
Just spent ~20 minutes talking with a ranger/naturalist who gave me a
couple of good ideas. Turns out she went to Pitt and knows one of the Comp
Sci. professors at C-MU. Time to go.
Photo notes
Looking back on my letters, I'm a bit surprised at how focused they are on the "Gas God
National Park" aspects of Yellowstone. However, nearly all my photos are from at least 100 feet
from pavement where the park becomes one of the few places I've been to where hearing the word
"unique" doesn't make me cringe. So in addition to describing individual photos, here are some
more regional notes.
Today's theme is thermal. The two main things I knew about Yellowstone before I got there
were Old Faithful and the Yellowstone River's waterfall. Perhaps I knew the river has two big
falls. There are several classes of thermal features beyond geysers. Going from driest to
wetest:
Fumarole
- No water, just steam. And sulphur dioxide, that was one thing I wanted to get away from
in Pittsburgh! They often have a deep roaring sound that doesn't sound at all like a tea
kettle, even one without a whistle.
Mud pot
- A lot of springs have a nearly conical shape. Water flows up into the cone and spreads
out as it rises. Features change a lot over time, a mud pots likely drained from the top of
the cone at one time, but now water only escapes as steam. The rock material in the water
flow is left behind, and what's left is a bubbling pot of hot mud.
Hot spring
- When there's a decent water flow, water rises through the water column and spreads out on
the ground. The acidic water (sulphuric acid, of course) has dissolved silica from the rock
in the way, but as the water cools it precipitates out as sinter. As it builds up, it
interferes with water flow so the resulting steady state is a ring of sinter with water
flowing over the entire ring. Large springs can have have bacteria and algae growing near the
edge, and the result is that these are the most attractive features in a thermal basin. These
were a pleasant surprise to me.
Geyser
- These are the classic columns of water and steam that everyone has seen since grade
school. Put simply, they are hot springs where the water flow is too slow to prevent boiling.
The water is heated deeply enough underground so that the pressure of the water
above has a higher boiling point that at the surface. Eventually some boils and the volume of
the steam pushes water out the top. Less water means less pressure and more steam, so in a
few seconds you can have anything from fountain a few feet tall to one hundreds of feet tall.
Then cooler water flows in, the column rebuilds, the water heats up and in a while there's a
new eruption.
1, 2, 14: Black Sands Basin.
This was my first stop of the day. There are several reasons to stay on the board walk
ranging from protecting delicate surfaces to not breaking through sinter that is growing
across the water surface. In this case the ranger let people stand on safe ground.
Rainbow Pool shows the colors from the bacteria and algae that grows at different
temperatures. Emerald Pool is shown out of sequence to compare it with the similar sized
Morning Glory Pool.
3 - 13: Upper Geyser basin
3 - 6: Old Faithful in various phases
This got its name because it erupted pretty much every hour or so. Some of the variation
comes from just how much water is ejected during an eruption. Long eruption -> more water
-> longer time to next. Some change is due simply to age and the heat source cooling
down. Major earthquakes in 1959, 1975, and 1983 triggered increases in the typical time
between eruptions, from about 65 minutes to 95 today.
7: Elk
There are a lot more big animals in the park today. I think I saw more elk close to the
entrance and glimpse of the bear that prevented me from staying at the Canyon
campground.
8, 9: Giantess Geyser
Giantess is the tallest geyser in the area, but erupts only rarely. It was active when I was there, but it was much more impressive earlier in the day. The foreground of the second photo is the unremarkable Infant Geyser.
10: Grotto Geyser erupts fairly frequently
11: Doublet Pool
Note the sinter growing over the water. Thin sinter. It won't support people or bison
calfs. Stick to the boardwalk!
12: Beach Spring - note the sinter ring around the water.
13: Morning Glory Pool
I guess when a spring is big enough and doesn't bubble, it becomes a "pool." This had been hotter, and hence bluer, but between earthquakes and people using tossing coins and other debris the flow rate has declined and bacterial mats bring the orange ring.
15 - 17: Lower Geyser basin
15, 16: Geyser without a name
I found this endearing little geyser at the edge of a parking area. Its eruption was only
a few feet high, but it erupted every few minutes. So I sat down next to it for a few
cycles to get it at its best with water drops on display. I hope it's still at
work.
17:Red Spouter fumarole
This feature was formed by the 1959 earthquake. At times it's a mud pot, note the dried
mud in front of it.
18, 19: Midway Geyser Basin: Grand Prismatic Spring
This large spring apparently is best viewed from an overlook which I did not hike up to.
The view from ground level does not do it justice.
