After the tour of the Old Faithful Inn, we hurried over to Old Faithful along with 50,000 of our newest bestest friends to gather around to see it erupt. Of course, we all know of Old Faithful. It is one of the most famous geysers in the world and a symbol of Yellowstone, American’s first National Park. Some geysers in the park are higher, some are bigger and some are more regular but none are so consistent that the next eruption can be predicted within + or - 10 minutes. Historically, the time interval between eruptions is 30 minutes to 2 hours but these days it is approximately 92 minutes.
Then we hurried up to Observation Point to get another view. Nice hike although those little kids, and I’m talking 6 yrs old, who scurry up the hill passing me while I’m huffing and puffing (must be the thin air) - humph. At the top, instead of 50,000 of our newest best friends, we found about 25 people who had climbed up. We all readied our cameras for the action. One time back in the early 70’s Gary and I lived in the Boston area and traveled in to see Marcel Marceau the mime. Possibly the greatest mime ever. Being thrifty, we bought seats in the balcony. Balcony? For a mime? Hey, Gary, hand me the binocs. I could barely see him on stage much less his actions. It was like watching 4th of July fireworks on TV. (We did learn our lesson though, we had 3rd row seats for the Nutcracker when it make its annual appearance in Boston.) This story tells you how much we could see of Old Faithful from Observation Point. Nice view but it was so tiny. Luckily we liked the hike since the view wasn’t that great.
Then we walked around the rest of the geysers and pools in the area. Yellowstone has more geysers than any other area in the world. Because - well, it sits on top of one of the world’s largest volcanoes. It has erupted 3 times and the last was 640,000 years ago. This eruption was 1000 times greater than Mt. St. Helens and dumped volcanic ash as much as 3’ deep as far away as Kansas and Nebraska. Could it erupt again? Sure but no one thinks it will very soon. However, with all that volcanic action below the surface, no wonder Yellowstone has more geothermal features than any other place on earth. There are 300+ geysers here, or about 2/3 of all the geysers in the world. Plus, there are hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles. It’s called the Yellowstone ‘hot spot’ and I’m not talking about wi-fi.
Every where you look are clouds of steam rising from the ground.
Look again and you can see all the small holes just a bubbling and gurgling away.
Listen quietly and you can hear the earth. The boardwalk we were on is surrounded by water, there is hardly a dry spot in the area. Look over behind those trees, you can see a geyser going off with its plume of steam rising over the lodgepole pines. Look over here and see more colors than in a Crayola Big Box.
Firstly, Yellowstone has a volcanic core of magma possibly as close as 5 - 8 miles beneath the surface of the earth. This magma provides lots of heat while the snows of winter and rains of summer provide the water. But, there’s got to be some way for all this to get to the surface - aha - cracks in the earth’s crust. Combine the cracks, the heat and the water and you get - voila - quite a show. But there are lots of other things that combine to give Yellowstone its colorful spectrum of color. These are are the thermophiles, the little organisms that live in the boiling temperatures that occur here in Yellowstone. The hardiest of them can thrive in temperatures close to 239 degrees F. WOW.
Geysers comes form Icelandic meaning ‘to gush’ which they do. Rain seeps into the earth, is warmed up by the magma, boils and comes to the surface until it hits a rock constriction: like squeezing a hose, and it gushes forth. The constriction in Old Faithful is 4”. No wonder it gushes. Well, it’s much more than that but that’s how I can understand it.
Hot springs do not have a constriction and can flow freely. But what is amazing about these is that some microbes can actually survive in the super hot waters in hot springs. These microbes are called thermophiles and the hardiest can survive temperatures of 239 degrees. These are clear and thus the center of the pools is a blue, the natural color of deep water. As the spring grows outward, the water is cooler and other microbes can live here and the colors of the springs changes. Note the change here from blue to yellow to green to the rusty reds and browns as the water flows away from the center of the spring.
Mud pots are springs with very little water. They are a gurgling, bubbling slurry of escaping gasses which smell like rotten eggs because of the sulphur in them.
Fumaroles are so hot that the water turns to steam before it reaches the surface. They are steam vents - just belching steam.
There you have it: thousand of pages of scientific information boiled down to something that even I can understand. But it’s the sounds and the colors that intrigue. How can this little tuft of grass grow in this steaming hot miasma?
What in the world causes this?
An unusual phenomenon in Yellowstone is the ‘geyser gazers.’ These are people who come often to the park, with walkie-talkies, notebooks, watches, comfy portable seats to watch their favorite geyser. They usually belong to the GOSA, the Geyser observation and Study Association and have their own website. We met several of these people along our way. One replied when asked if it was a hobby or a job, ‘it’s an obsession.’ He’s the one sitting on the boardwalk in a comfy canvas chair with pen and tablet in hand, walkie-talkie at his side ready to report what he sees and records to other geyser gazers around the area.
Now, let’s tour the area. We walked on boardwalks which are suspended about 2’ above the earth. Gary and I both wondered, if the earth is so hot here, how did they build the boardwalk? We were also surprised to see scat around the pools and geysers. Probably some animal seeking warmth in the winter.
After watching Old Faithful erupt twice, we circled the boardwalks in what is called the Upper Geyser area. Here are about 20% of the world’s geysers, 150 are located in one square mile, the most densely concentrated geyser region of the world. If you stand a ways off, you can see steam rising almost continually from the area. Eerie. Here is the view we had as we were approaching the Upper Geyser region. As you walk the boardwalk, look down, little geysers, little hot springs, little mud pots. The large ones are named, the small ones aren’t but their presence is a testament to the activity beneath the surface.
We walked past the Heart Spring since it’s shaped like a heart.
Crested Pool is almost constantly boiling. You can almost hear the sizzle. as this boiling water hits the edge. Doublet Pool has a neat seried of ledges between the pools. Neat scalloped borders.
Note the browns and rusty reds as the water flows away from the center of the springs and pools. This means that the water is cooler and the brown and red bacteria are thriving.
Our goal was to reach Morning Glory Pool, named in the 1880’s becasue of its likeness to the Morning Glory flower. It used to be much bluer in the center because the water was hotter there. However, over the years, people have carelessly tossed things like coins, small branches, soda cans, water bottles and other sorts of trash into the pool and gummed up its plumbing, reducing the circulation and heat. At one time, the park staff began to call it the ‘Garbage Can.’ Because of this the hotter blues have decreased while the cooler green, orange and yellow bacteria have increased but it is still a spectacular sight.
Finally, we turned back to the Inn where we had started. As we came down a trail, we saw a lot of people comfortably sitting in the shade on a bench waiting for an eruption from a geyser called ‘Castle’ because of its 12’ cone. This cone is made of getyserite, when the silica in the earth gets deposited around a geyser after an eruption. This geyserite grows at the rate of 1 - 2 inches per century. Because this cone is so tall, it’s thought that Castle geyser is the oldest in the park. Castle not only has a predictable eruption, the water eruption usually lasts for 20+ minutes and the steam that follows lasts another 20+ minutes. It was predicted to erupt within 50 or so minutes. We sat down, glad to be off our feet for a bit since we had been walking all day and thought we’d wait also.
We waited and we waited and we waited. We were getting tired and a cold soda sounded mighty fine. But we still sat. Suddenly, it began. It was amazing. It was like a good fireworks show. It just kept coming and coming, often reaching 75’ high.
Every now and then it would quiet down and we’d think it was over, but it started up again. We were enthralled. And all the water that was spewing out fell back on the cone and ran down its side. Then the steam phase started and was just as spectacular as the water phase.
One of the geyser gazers then announced to all who could hear on his walkie talkie: ‘We’ve got a major on Castle’ meaning that Castle was giving its best to everyone it was a magnificent eruption.
But we’re hungry, thirsty, tired and weary. We finally left after about 45 minutes. As we sat on the veranda of the store with our cold drinks in our hands, we looked back and Castle was still going strong. We talked with a couple in their early 70’s who were traveling in their Roadtrek from New York to Montana to visit friends. They do this every year and he’s looking forward to fly fishing in the streams around here.
Finally, we’re headed back to the RV. We had planned on stopping at a few other smaller geyser stops along the route but decided that was for another time.
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