Tag Archives: geysers

Yellowstone, Day 3: Old Faithful Geyser Area

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Bright and Sunny!

Bright and Sunny!

We spent the previous night at the Old Faithful cabins.  The cabins were single level duplexes, and were rather old and small.  However, they were also right by Old Faithful and the geysers, as well as the Old Faithful Lodge dining room.  After enjoying a nice breakfast, we decided to spend the day seeing a variety of geysers.

We think this is Castle Geyser. :-)

We think this is Castle Geyser. :-)

We began our day by hiking down the boardwalk, and were fortunate to arrive at the end (i.e. the last few hours) of the Castle Geyser eruption.  We admired the geyser for a few minutes, and then wandered down and across the river, where we saw sputtering from another small geyser as well as Scallop Spring.  We also saw Sawmill Geyser doing it’s geyser thing, as well as long-distance views of Old Faithful and Daisy Geyser.

Morning Glory Pool

Morning Glory Pool

Continuing on our geyser tour, we then saw Grotto Geyser erupting, checked out Riverside Geyser and Spiteful Geyser, and ended the walk at the Morning Glory Pool.

Grand Geyser Eruption

Grand Geyser Eruption

We then went back and took up residence at the Grand Geyser viewing area.  We got there at the beginning of the eruption window, around 10am, and waited till a little after 1pm.  The geyser was very cool to see, and we enjoyed being about 20′ from the actual geyser.

Inside the lodge for lunch.

Inside the lodge for lunch.

We enjoyed lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge dining room; the interior architecture is also very interesting, with  large chandeliers and rough-hewn logs visible throughout the building.

Old Faithful Geyser Area

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Old Faithful

This morning and early afternoon was our last day at Yellowstone. We decided to spend it at the Old Faithful area. We enjoyed watching Old Faithful erupt, and then wandered around the boardwalk to look at the rest of the thermal features. We got to see a lot of other geysers give off minor eruptions, and got to see one other major eruption through the trees. We enjoyed seeing the morning glory pool, and learned that the color of the pool changes with the seasons as the temperature in the pool fluctuates. We also got to see Old Faithful erupt one more time, this time from a distance. It is always impressive to watch.

After the Old Faithful area we drove north to the mud pots area. We went for a walk along the boardwalk, which was covered in sulfurous steam. We enjoyed seeing the mud pots again, and listening to the “bloop” sound that the mud makes.

We then started our long drive back to Denver. It turned out to be longer than we anticipated, as there was a lot of construction along the back roads. Construction which closed one full lane of a two lane road, forcing traffic to take turns driving along the road, and waiting up to 30 minutes for the other line of cars to pass. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. However, we got back to Denver safely, and are already trying to figure out when we can make it back to Yellowstone and the Tetons.

Check out our photos from Old Faithful.

Norris and West Thumb at Yellowstone

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Elk at Stream

After the hike at the Tetons, we went to the West Thumb and Norris Geyser areas. West Thumb is a thermal area near an inlet to Yellowstone Lake. This area is really neat to walk through, because there are a lot of thermal pools. There are even several geyser cones in the lake.

We then went to Biscuit Basin, near the Old Faithful geyser area. This is a smaller area, with several large thermal pools. We also saw some buffalo alongside the road near this area. They were just relaxing, happily wandering through the grass, and pointedly ignoring the cars which stopped to gawk and take pictures.

We also went to the Mud Volcano area, where we got to see a lot of bubbling mud. While none of the mud was really flying this time, the thermal feature was definitely active, with a lot of mud bubbling and boiling.

On our way up to Norris Geyser Basin, we stopped along the side of the road to see two large bull elk. Their racks were very impressive, and it was amusing that one was calmly sitting in the middle of some trees, while the other was happily eating grass by a stream and posing by turning his head from side to side.

Once we made our way up to Norris, we took a quick hike around the geyser area. We were fortunate to be there for sunset, and managed to get some nice pictures of the sun, trees, and thermal features.

Here are our albums from the post: