Yellowstone National Park

About 640,000 years ago, a super volcano exploded in what is now northwestern Wyoming with a force 1000 times greater than Mt. St. Helen’s. The resulting massive caldera is now Yellowstone National Park. It is actually a hot spot, like Hawaii and Iceland, but instead of creating islands in the middle of the ocean, this magma plume is underneath a land mass. And so, every one or two million years, the pressure builds up so much that the crust above it can’t hold anymore. Presto. Super Volcano!




Thankfully, we did not blow up today. Maybe tomorrow…



The other by product of this particular hot spot, however, is one of the world’s largest concentrations of hydrothermal activity. Geysers, Fumaroles, Hot Springs, Hot Pools. There are thousands of them strewn about several basins throughout the park.



Today, I think we probably saw about three quarters of them. Brace yourselves...

Our day began in the West Thumb region. This area was really cool because it was right next to the lake! We didn’t see any geysers go off, but saw some really deep and colorful pools…

Our next stop was at the upper geyser basin, home to the famous Old Faithful. In the visitor center there was a list of predicted eruptions for 5 or 6 of the more regular geysers in the park. Old Faithful, which goes off every 60 to 90 minutes, like clockwork, wasn’t scheduled to erupt for another 40 minutes. So we made a quick loop around some other features…

And we had a random geyser go off right in front of us!

Then it was back around in time for Old Faithful. So many people!!!

Pretty awesome!

We then went off to explore the rest of the area. Now I must mention that a day or so before entering Yellowstone we decided that we needed something for the ugly weather that was being predicted. So we picked up some sweet $20 jacket and pant rain suit combos. Mine black. Megs begrudgingly took green. But of course, now that we were weather equipped, we hadn’t seen a bit of precipitation to this point…



When we got out at Old Faithful, the weather seemed fine and we left our cumbersome suits behind. A couple hours later, we are a mile or two away from the parking lot… Rain. Of course it would rain now… But we had seen a ton of cool stuff up to that point at least.  Like a lone wolf that came ambling along and crossed our path right in front of us!!

And, of course, more hyrdothermic activity...

The rain lasted just long enough to be a pain. Right about the time we decided to head back to the RV, it stopped. Obviously. We were close to Daisy Geyser at this point, which was scheduled to go off any minute, so we stayed and were not disappointed…

Yeah, that's me and my best wet dog impersonation...


Back to the RV to change and get lunch. Now we had our suits, we were ready. Headed over to the Black Sand Basin and it was pouring. Thunder and lightning coming too. Still more fun stuff though…

Next was a short drive to Biscuit Basin. No rain. But we didn’t want to take any chances, so we kept on our rain pants and went to check out the area. Almost immediately, the sun came out and we spent the rest of the half mile loop sweating. Can’t win…

Beaten, but not broken, we resolved to keep going! Next was Midway Basin with the park’s largest hot spring and a geyser that exploded so powerfully in the 80s, it is now in its own crater…

Then on to the Fountain Paint Pots area. Highlights were a bubbling mud pit, a particularly angry fumarole (steam vent), and a geyser erupting…

By the time we reached the Norris basin, the sun was getting pretty low in the sky. But the awesome scenery really made for a great close to the day…

After a full 12 hour day, we had made it about two thirds of the way around one of those “8 hour loops” that Ranger Bob told us about… No idea how we could have done it faster. There is just soooo much to see!!



Definitely a great way to celebrate one full month of being on the road!!



And a special shout out to our Grammy Lucille in Florida, who turned 90 today!!



As you might imagine, we were pretty tired after such a long day. But with so much going on around here, there’s not much time to rest… Tomorrow we head south to see the Grand Tetons!!