Springs runoff into Firehole River
Once again we spent the day at geothermal features as we drove north past Old Faithful to some of the geyser basins we hadn’t yet visited. It wasn’t nearly as cold overnight and was about 4 C when we left this morning, but it also didn’t warm up nearly as much today. It was very hazy, some clouds, but mostly smoke from all the forest fires burning around this area. There is a large fire in the national park to our north about 30 km away, and one south of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Yesterday was very warm, dry and windy, so these fires both grew.
Our first stop was at the Midway Geyser Basin. Because of the cool air there was so much steam over the hot springs and pools that it was difficult to see much. However the colors of the water in the Great Prismatic Spring were so intense that they colored the fog above the pool pink and turquoise. As well the water running over the rock flowed through many colored streams stained by the different kinds of thermophile bacteria. Where the water flows over the edge and into the Firehole River was very colorful.
We drove north past Gibbon Falls, a beautiful drop through a gorge beside the road, and on to the Norris Geyser Basin. We couldn’t find a picnic table near the parking lot (it turns out there aren’t any in the entire area) so we walked through a stand of young trees newly grown since the 1988 fire to a small clearing where we ate our lunch in isolation. It was a nice spot, and there was a small hot spring fuming and bubbling just a few feet in front of us. The fire must have come incredibly close to the old museum. We walked through it, though it is very small and doesn’t have a lot of exhibits.
Ledge Geyser
The Norris area has many pools and springs, and also some geysers. However the geysers were not very active. Steamboat, the largest geyser in the world is in this basin, but it hasn’t erupted since 2005. The Porcelain Basin is a large flat plain surrounded by low hills, all of them in various shades of white and grey, interspersed with blue, green and yellow pools of water. The colors in the water running from the hot springs were very bright. We walked through this basin, and then took the longer loop by Steamboat Geyser, and numerous other hot springs and thermal vents.
After about two hours here we drove the short distance north to a small museum, “The History of the Park Ranger”. It is in a small log building that was built in 1908 as one of the patrol stations in the park. It had displays of a number of general artifacts about various US National Parks as they related to the history of how the Park Rangers.
Finally on the way home we stopped at Firehole Falls to take some more pictures. We probably didn’t take as many photographs today as we sometimes have. The light wasn’t as good since the sky was hazy all day with smoke. However, Enid and I still took a lot, probably a couple of hundred between the two of us.
It is much cooler tonight than it has been. It began to sprinkle rain, and though it is not heavy, it will be of some help in putting a damper on the forest fires.