Old Faithful

Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand Prismatic Spring

Excelsior Geyser Crater

Not a sight you see every day!

Wonder where he’s going!

A buck Elk with six points on each antler with his harem!

The Fishing Hole!

Today the main focus of our visit to YNP was to see ‘Old Faithful’ which is a cone geyser. It is called the most predictable geographical feature on Earth erupting almost every 91 minutes and each eruption can last from 1.5 to 5 minutes. The average height of an eruption is 145 feet (44 metres) with the highest recorded eruption being 185 feet (56 metres).  It is the most viewed geyser in the Park and each time Old Faithful erupts there are hundreds of people there to record the event.

We also went to have a look at Grand Prismatic Spring. It is the largest hot spring in the United States and the third largest in the world The lake is known for its turquoise colour and so our ‘resident photographer’ was rather disappointed not to be able to see it due to the rising steam.

The vivid colors in the spring are the result of pigmented bacteria in the microbial mats that grow around the edges of the mineral-rich water

As you travel round the Park, Yellowstone has so many different faces, meadows, mountains, rivers, streams, lakes, canyons and rolling hills it’s no wonder that it was made the first National Park. It covers over two million acres!!

We were lucky today to see a Buffalo treading the highway and a big buck Elk with his harem, they decided to spend the afternoon sitting outside the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel.

The last picture is of a small lake we pass when we drive down the mountain ….. we’ve christened it ‘the fishing hole’.

Roosevelt Arch at the entrance to Yellowstone National Park

Pallete Hot Spring

Norris Geyser Basin

Norris Geyser Basin

Norris Geyser Basin

Norris Geyser Basin

Norris Geyser Crackling Lake

Norris Geyser Basin

Norris Geyser Basin

Norris Geyser Basin

Si at Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Sandra at Lower Yellowstone Falls

Yellowstone Lower Falls

Buffalo

Buffalo in his mud patch!

Elk

Si’s bear!

First Chance Mine up on the mountain

Sunset on the mountain

Sunset on the mountain

Sunset on the mountain

We awoke in our log cabin to yet another hot sunny day and after eating a magnificent breakfast cooked and served by Cheryl, we headed out to Yellowstone National Park (YNP).

We have seen some mind-blowing, magnificent sights on our travels across the USA but what we have seen today at YNP outweighs everything we have seen so far.

Yellowstone lies over a hotspot where light, hot, molten mantle rock rises toward the surface. While the Yellowstone hotspot is now under the Yellowstone Plateau, it previously helped create the eastern Snake River Plain (to the west of Yellowstone) through a series of huge volcanic eruptions. The hotspot appears to move across terrain in the east-northeast direction, but in fact the hotspot is much deeper than terrain and remains stationary while the North American Plate moves west-southwest over it.

Over the past 18 million years or so, this hotspot has generated a succession of violent eruptions and less violent floods of basaltic lava. Together these eruptions have helped create the eastern part of the Snake river Plain from a once-mountainous region. At least a dozen of these eruptions were so massive that they are classified as super eruptions.

Yellowstone was established as the world’s first national park in 1872 primarily because of its unparalleled collection of geysers, hot springs, mud pots and steam vents. It is classified as an active volcano and has approximately 2000 earthquakes annually!

The highest point in YNP is Eagle Peak which stands at 11,358 feet above sea level. YNP gets approximately three million visitors a year of which only 140,000 visit in the winter.

The 300 plus geysers make up about two-thirds of all those found on the planet! Combine that with more than 10,000 thermal features and you have a place like no other.

For those who like the technical detail; Geysers are hot springs with narrow spaces in their plumbing, usually near the surface. These constrictions prevent water from circulating freely to the surface where heat would escape.  The deepest circulating water can exceed the surface boiling point (199ºF or 93ºC).

At Norris Geyser Basin a scientific drill hole measured 401ºF or 200ºC at just over 265 feet below the surface. Hot then!!

Hot springs are the most common hydrothermal features in the park. They vary from frothing mocha-like boiling water to clear and calm pools of unfathomable depth. The colours of the hot springs are magnificent and the water is mostly clear.

Travertine terraces are found at Mammoth Hot Springs, where interactions of water and limestone create chalk-white travertine.

The overriding smell where the geysers are is one of sulphur or rotten eggs, although it was nowhere near as bad as we thought it would be!! We were lucky enough to actually see one geyser erupt just as we arrived.

YNP as a whole emits 30-40 times more heat per square feet than the rest of North America.

Wildlife roam freely all over YNP and today we were lucky enough to get ‘up close and personal’ with a buffalo, see a herd of elk and today …………. Si actually got to see a bear in the wild! We also saw an Osprey’s nest high up in the cliffs.

YNP even has its own Grand Canyon called Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and it has a magnificent waterfall (Lower Yellowstone Falls) which looks just like a miniature Niagara Falls with the most wonderful rainbow.

We hiked down to the Lower Falls which are actually twice as high as Niagara Falls at 308 feet (94 metres). The hike is a one-mile round trip with a drop of 600 feet but then of course we had to climb the 600 feet back up to the top, which at the altitude and heat made us a little breathless. The hike is classified as ‘strenuous’.

We were ready for our dinner tonight, Cheryl cooked lasagna with salad and garlic bread and it certainly went down a treat. The other family from England have left and so today we were joined by the lovely Brogan family from the US.

Si took a walk to take some sunset photos for you to enjoy!

Tomorrow we continue our adventure in Yellowstone and will be visiting ‘Old Faithful’.