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| May visit on left, current visit on right (what a dramatic change) |
Last weekend we went with our friends Al and Karen to spend some time in the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone National Park. John and I had visited Yellowstone in early May. You can see in the picture above how different this park looks now since spring has finally arrived. It was Al & Karen's first visit and since we are all here until October we thought the best way to enjoy this magnificent park was to concentrate on one area at a time. The Old Faithful area is the most popular and certainly unique and weird. We choose the Upper Basin Geyser Trail since it goes by many geysers (approximately six miles roundtrip).
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| Upper Geyser Basin Trial |
Our first stop was the Visitor Center to find out when some of the predictable geysers were scheduled to go off to help us plan our route. Old Faithful was due to erupt shortly so we headed out to the Observation Point Trail to observe the eruption 300 feet above. It gave us a wonderful panoramic view of the geysers and Old Faithful. What a great start!
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| Old Faithful erupting below |
Click video below to watch Old Faithful erupt
Afterwards we accidentally headed up to the Solitary Geyser. Although this was not our original intention it was a very cool geyser which erupts about every five minutes. It became a geyser by accident when in 1915 a diversion channel was built to take water to a nearby resort. It was never used for this purpose and the channel was removed, however, it continues to entertain us to this day.
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| Solitary Geyser eruption |
We then headed back down to the boardwalk and left the solitude of the forest. There were lots of boiling pots along the boardwalk which were fun to observe. Plus, there were a lot of strange smells.
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| Castle Geyser |
We passed the area where the Grand Geyser erupts. It was not scheduled until later in the evening and several folks said it was well worth seeing. However, it can only be predicted within three hours of eruption and you might have to wait a long time to see it. So, maybe on another visit we'll check it out. Note how the trees are all dead surrounding the area where it erupts.
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| Grand Geyser area |
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| Check out the reflection in this pool |
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| Sawmill Geyser |
Click on video below to see all the action
The Grotto Geyser has not erupted since 2010, however, it was bubbling and carrying on quite a bit. I was sure it might go off at anytime. :)
Probably the most famous thermal feature in this area in the Morning Glory Pool. Karen had purchased "The Photographer's Guide to Yellowstone" by Joseph Lang which gave us some great tips for photographing this area. The key is sunlight which brings out some of the amazing features. We waited for the sun to come out in this area and were surprised by the difference in the appearance of this pool.
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| John, Al, & Karen |
Below is another example of how sunlight changed dramatically the appearance of this pool
It was about time for the Riverside Geyser to erupt so we headed back and waited and waited and waited. After about an hour past the estimated eruption the sky started to turn dark and thunder clouds appeared. With the first crash of lightening we decided to leave and of coarse only then did it decide to erupt. This geyser can cause a pretty rainbow across the water during sunny weather but even without it this was a spectacular one to watch.
Click on the video below to see the eruption
The lightening and threat of thunderstorms made the last one and half miles go by very quickly. We did not get very wet but certainly got a good work out. Afterwards we had a nice dinner at the cafeteria and headed home after a very amazing day. We really enjoy hiking with Al and Karen. More trips are planned in the future so be sure to check back.
