BAD TRAVELS

Yellowstone - Day 1, Old Faithful Area

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Our first day, first time seeing all the geysers and hot springs. Lots of wildlife around, especially buffalo. They also seem to like hanging out in the hot spring areas. A ranger told us that the sulpher in the steam helps kill parasites on them. Check out the BLOG!

First close up of a buffalo on the way into the park…..exciting but we didn’t know then, just how common they were in the park. They’re everywhere!

View of Mount Haynes and the Madison River. Very popular fly fishing spot.

These little ground squirrels were everywhere along the river banks. Very heathly, chubby, little guy!

This one was running around a mile a minute collecting nesting material

Like I said, buffalo herds everywhere!

This boardwalk into the “Lower geyser basin” was our first opportunity to get out and see the geysers and hot springs. You're not supposed to leave the path for obvious reasons, you’re on unstable, volcanic ground!

But that doesn’t stop the animals from roaming around the hot springs….those white circular makrs are buffalo hoof prints. Sometimes they fall thru and get scalded….wonder if the bears appreaciate cooked meat?

First hot spring we saw, most are this beautiful blue colour and many are named some sort of blue related name. Not sure what this one was called.

Some geysers only erupt occasionally but this one seemed to go non-stop.

Gives you an idea of how strange and barren the volcanic landscape here is.

Next stop, “Midway Geyser Basin”. This is the Grand Prismatic Spring which is apparently beautifully coloured but it’s rarely seen from the boardwalk due to the prevailing winds blowing steam directly at you.

If you look closely, in the top left, you can just barely see people on a look out. Walking thru the steam created by all the hot springs was like being in a sauna. Very warm and humid, nice way to warm up on a cool day.

This is the spring creating all that steam in the previous pic

Actually it’s a currenly dormant geyser. Last eruption happended in 1985. It’s somewhat creepy walking by these things knowing they could blow up like that again at any time. You just never know!

3rd geyser basin is the Biscuit Basin. Not sure what those milky blue pools were called.

The Sapphire pool….don’t you just wanna jump in?

Name ???? Pretty though!

Jewel Geyser, not much to look at when nothing is happening

But then it starts to erupt...

And it’s worth watching now. As we were walking around we noticed it erupted about every 10-15 minutes.

This is the Black Sand Basin. The Cliff Geyser (in the back along the river bank) is just starting to erupt

You can tell just how these springs are all burnt and toasted trees..nothing lives in that water except some minute organisms that create some of the colours you see.

Enjoying the steam, kinda like getting a free facial

Finally made it to the Upper Basin where Old Faithful is.

Obviously one of the most popular attractions in the entire park…. look at the extensive seating/viewing area they have set up around it. Full when we were there.

Almost right on schedule, Old Faithful begins to erupt

Impressive to watch, lasted about 5-10 minutes but wasn’t as big as I thought it would be.

Proof we were there…. yes the steam in the background is the end of the Old Faithful eruption.

Curiosity finally got the better of him, he just had to feel how hot the Old Faithful run off was….not very. Just warm here.

A view back to the Old Faithful village/lodge community in the park.

This is the Aurum Geyser, only erupts every 2.5 - 5 hours and they don’t show when the last eruption was. Lucky us, we walked by just as it erupted.

Wow, almost more impressive than Old Faithful because we were that much closer to it.

Perfect timing on our part, right place, right time!

All finished, you’d never know that plain looking hole in the ground could put on such a stunning display.

That steam you see in the distance is from the Grand Geyser, the worlds tallest (up to 180 ft), predictable geyser. On the day we visited, it wasn’t scheduled to erupt until some time between 7-11 pm.

Beauty Pool

Chromatic Pool - all the colours are created by microscopic life. Blue and clear water exceed the boiling point (199F/93C) at this elevation. The darker colours get down to 80F/27C at the low end.

On the drive back home we hit our first Buffalo Jam, many more to come.

Scraggly looking beast, still loosing his winter coat.

Lots of babies in the herd

Not long after seeing the buffalo, we saw this Mom and baby elk across the river.

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