This is one of many hot springs, painted with microflora. The different bacteria grow in different temperature water. Green in the hottest areas. Then Yellow and Orange as the water cools. Blue where the water is too hot for anything to live.
We stayed 5 nights in the Old Faithful Inn. A grand lodge made of logs that is over a hundred years old. It sits right on the upper geyser basin allowing wonderful short walks to Old Faithful, Riverside, and Grand Geysers and many Hot springs. Thats Old Faithful on the left.
I love the geothermal features. There is steam everywhere!
One of my favorites is Grand Prismatic Spring. The colors are remarkable!
When the wind blows the rising steam over the bands of color surrounding the spring it reflects the colors. WOW!
It's like a steamy rainbow.
Its a natural wonder of color and light.
The biggest isn't always the best. This time it is!
Other geothermal features are filled with soils forming mudpots. This is the fountain paint pots. A pond of bubbling mud. Too cool!
We took a swim in the Firehole River. The cold mountain water is warmed by the geothermal features that constantly dump near boiling water into the river. We had a wonderful swim.
Alex really likes swimming in rivers and lakes!
Grotto Geyser. One of the many small geyser in the upper geyser basin. More than half of the geysers in the world are in Yellowstone.
We got to see eruptions of most of the major geysers in the park. This one is Castle Geyser. Never saw a major eruption of Castle Geyser before. Quite spectacular! It went off as we were watching an eruption of Grand Geyser. The eruption kept going long enough for us to wait for Grand Geyser to finish and walk to Castle Geyser. I love the way the steam seems to melt into the clouds in this image.
This image shows a close up of the water and steam. You can really feel the power of this major eruption.
Grand Geyser in full glory. I think it is the best show in the park. Grand Geyser is the largest predictable geyser on earth. Its actually a series of three geysers known as the Grand Geyser Group. You can see Vent Geyser to the left.
Grand Geyser is a fountain type geyser. Here you see a nice release of water.
Here is Grand Geyser from a distance. The highest eruptions come at the end of the show when the eruption seems to end. Compared to the people in the picture you can see that the eruption is well over a 100 feet.
Watch Grand Geyser Erupt. The eruption lasts about 8 minutes. Here are the first 2 minutes 30 seconds.
Riverside Geyser. This was the first time we were able to see an eruption of this one. The water goes out at an angle over the Firehole River.
Riverside Geyser erupted for about 20 minutes. Quite a site!
Tom and Diane at Riverside Geyser.
This is Great Fountain Geyser. Its located in the lower Geyser Basin. We saw it erupt between a couple of storms as you can see from the cloudy skies.
Watch an eruption of of Great Fountain Geyser. Sorry about the raindrops in the lens.
This is Clepsydra Geyser at sunset. I stood between Clepsydra and Fountain Geysers at sunset snapping away with my camera. Photography heaven.
This is Fountain Geyser looking the other way from Clepsydra. I love the way the glow of the sunset is cast on the geyser.
Last but not least, Old Faithful. It erupts about every 90 minutes. We saw it erupt about 10 times during our stay at the Old Faithful Inn.
Old Faithful from the Geyser Hill. Its always quite a site.
Mammoth Hot Springs. A mountainous travertine terrace formed by the continuous flow of the hot springs.
One of the many small geysers constantly erupting in the park.
This is a close view of one of the bacterial mats that grow in the hot waters of Yellowstone. Its living art.
The structures and patterns formed by the bacterial mats are highly diverse in color and structure. Fascinating and beautiful
Diane didn't adopt a new religion. She just hates the mosquitos. Actually, they weren't so bad overall. But they were picking on her during our walk at West Thumb Basin.
This is a look up at Steam Boat Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin. It's the largest active geyser in the world. Eruptions are 300 feet. Unfortunately the last eruption was 2005. It must be a wonder to see. Maybe some day.
This is the storm that chased us out of the Norris Geyser Basin. We had a great hike!
We went fishing on a charter boat on Yellowstone lake. Bart and Alex caught these nice lake trout. They made for a very tasty dinner!
This is Morning Glory Pool. Very beautiful end to a wonderful walk.
The Green to yellow to orange bacterial mat formation as the water cools is very evident.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River from Lookout Point. The colors take my breath away.
The Lower Falls looking the other way up the canyon at Lookout Point.
The upper falls from the View Point.
Brink of the Upper Falls. Feel the power!
The Lower Falls and Canyon from Artist Point.
The most colorful part of the canyon. You can see the colors bleeding down the side of the Canyon. I can never get enough.
Yellowstone is full of Buffalo (Bison if you want to be correct) Here is a close look at a full grown bull.
Bart and a Buffalo hear Mud Volcano.
Definitely a violation of the 100 foot buffer rule for staying away from the animals. More like 5 feet away. But it doesn't look like he is going anywhere soon.
A baby Buffalo at sunset in the Hayden Valley.
Somebody check and see if that Buffalo has a driver's license! Another Buffalo jam in Yellowstone. This is the end of about six minutes where we were stuck behind these two beasts. Sorry about the bugs on the windshield. It was a big problem the whole trip.
A Black Bear crossing a river in the Lamar Valley. We saw two Black Bears during the evening we visited the valley.
A group of Pronghorn Antelope in the Lamar Valley
A young Elk on the grass near the Visitor Center at Mammoth Hot Springs. There are always Elk on the lawn there.
A bull Elk in velvet on the road between Norris and the Canyon. Nice Rack!
We got a intense rainbow behind us as we headed to Glacier National Park.
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