An Unlikely Geological Hotspot

On Thursday night, I got pretty sick. Sick enough that when we left Old Faithful on Friday morning after walking around for a couple of hours, I was very grateful to my body for not feeling the need to throw up at the geyser.

I wasn’t really able to sleep in, so we got an early start to Old Faithful as planned. Old Faithful goes off approximately every hour and a half, so we had a loose idea of when would be a good time to arrive, but tried not to get too excited about a specific plan.

We got to the geyser about half an hour before it was maybe supposed to erupt (plus or minus 16 minutes, according to the prediction calculator), so we had a seat and waited. It’s hard to see the geyser erupt without being surrounded by people because they slowly trickle in during the hour and a half proceeding the eruption, so even though it was shortly after 8:00 am, we were certainly nowhere near alone. By the time we left a couple of hours later, though, the number of people hanging out about the geyser had increased dramatically.

Old Faithful (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I’m going to be honest here - unusual geothermal activity is pretty cool, but it doesn’t make me insanely excited. Old Faithful wasn’t the craziest thing I’ve ever seen, but it is pretty awesome to see nature explode in any way, whether arbitrarily or (approximately) on a schedule.

After we saw Old Faithful do its thing, we (slowly, and with several breaks to sit down) walked a couple of miles through the area to see the other geysers and hydrothermal elements. Honestly, this part is a bit fuzzy in my memory, so I can’t teach you much about all this stuff. But it was cool, and here are some pictures.

A view of the hillside and the Old Faithful Inn, which is the first example of parkitecture and the largest log structure in the world (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A yellow-bellied marmot (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Some sort of crazy hot water thing (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We next drove to the Grand Prismatic Spring, where Jason’s parking luck paid off and we got a spot in the very busy parking lot. Despite my general state of discomfort, the Spring was amazing. It’s a rainbow of deep, rich colors, starting with blue in the middle and ending at orange on the sides. The colors are from the water temperature, which supports the growth of different types and colors of microbes. Possibly my favorite part was the steam off of the Spring, which was all of the colors that showed in the water. It’s really beautiful, in a crazy, abstract sort of way.

People taking pictures of the Grand Prismatic Spring (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The multi-colored steam was my favorite part (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Spring is great for abstract photography - notice the reflection of the trees along the lower edge of the orange part (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the Spring we got some food (Jason) and probiotics (me) at Canyon Village. Yellowstone is kind of odd in that there are a few groups of stores, gas stations, and hotels in the middle of the park. It’s weird having a random cafeteria filled with tourists in the middle of a national park, five miles away from a field of wildlife that has zero humans in it. It’s an interesting dichotomy, but also nice to know that one can always get away from the crowds there.

Our next stop was Hayden Valley, where we joined the other visitors in the great American pastime of taking many pictures of bison. I am constantly bemoaning the lack of this continent’s megafauna (thanks, Quaternary extinction event), and bison are great. They are huge, they are fluffy, they have curious bovine eyes, and they are just entertaining to watch.

A bison wallowing (rolling in the dirt) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our campsite was next to Yellowstone lake, which is massive and lovely, though I missed the sight of the Tetons on the other side. We stopped on our way in to take some pictures of the very chill young male elk that were hanging out in the shade.

Relaxing elk (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Grazing elk (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A ladybug in the grass (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Saturday I felt somewhat better, and we headed to Artist’s Point early to see the lower falls. On the way, after stopping to take some more pictures of bison

I love their eyes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Bison and steam (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Yellowstone in all of its otherworldliness (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Bison butts (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Bison calves play fighting (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A young bison soaks up the early morning sun (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Uncle Tom’s trail was closed, which was frustrating but also a relief, because I’m not sure how I would have done with that many stairs. Artist’s Point, though, is a short walk to a lovely view of the lower falls, and the sun kept peeking out from behind the clouds to bathe the water and mist in a warm light. From Artist’s Point we went to see the lower falls and the brink of the upper falls. Aside from the waterfall being super dramatic, the canyon is a beautiful yellow and orange.

Upper Yellowstone Falls (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another shot of the Falls showing the colorful canyon (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An adorable and very twitchy squirrel (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we saw the falls from several angles, we left to head for the Norris Geyser Basin area. On the drive, we saw a crowd of people peering at something over a cliff, so I demanded we stop to investigate. It was a baby black bear and its mother, who was being incredibly tolerant of the people standing far closer than the suggested 100 meters as they oohed and aahed. Jason had a pretty long telephoto lens, so we were able to get a couple of pictures while staying a little further back. After a couple of minutes the bears headed off, and we continued to see more geyers. Mama bear (Photo/Jason Rafal) Baby bear (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Norris Geyser Basin looks like the scene of the apocalypse. There are forests on all sides, but the ground in the area is very light, devoid of trees, and usually looks very dry and salty (except when there are geysers and pools). Mammoth Hot Springs is known for its beautiful, multicolored terraces, over which the hot water flows and steams. It’s weird, and remarkable, and mesmerizing.

The basin (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Steam escaping from a hillside (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Canary Spring (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Palette Spring and Terrace (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After eating lunch in Mammoth along with everyone else who was in the northern tip of the park, we headed out east to Lamar Valley. On our way, we saw another mother and baby bear by the side of the road. There were rangers keeping people from stopping because the bears were so close, so we kept driving. Once we got into the valley we stopped and got out of the car to look at the herds of bison.

There were just so many bison (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we officially left Yellowstone, we drove over Dead Indian Pass, which is so poorly named I am hardly willing to say it. But the view from the top of the pass is absolutely incredible, so I wanted to share that. It has a tragic story involving a tribe fleeing to a new valley, and a dying man who was left behind.

The incredible view from the top of the pass (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent our last night in a beautiful guest house in Wyoming, where we watched the sun set and the stars come out. It was a lovely end to the trip, and there was an adorable dog who came to say hi in the morning as well.

Sunset over the hay fields (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Stars in the evening sky (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our dog friend (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Yellowstone has a lot of really cool places to see, but I think the most impressive thing about the park is that approximately three million people each year come here to watch…nature. Even with all that has changed in the past 100 years, a beautiful, weird park in the middle of nowhere Wyoming is still one of our nation’s top internationally visited treasures. It gives me a tiny bit of faith in humanity.