I did say we got lots of geyser pics that day (September 14), right?
The last stop of the day (in the park) was the Midway Geyser Basin. There are actually a few features at the Midway Geyser Basin, but the granddaddy of them all — and Hubby’s favorite — is the Grand Prismatic Spring. At about 300 feet across, Grand Prismatic is the largest hot spring in Yellowstone. It’s also considered to be the third largest in the world (there are two larger hot springs in New Zealand).
Grand Prismatic sits atop a wide, spreading mound. The water flows evenly on all sides and has formed a series of small, step-like terraces. Grand Prismatic is named for its wide variety of colors (best experienced from the air, as shown in the photo below).
That line across the lower left of the frame is the boardwalk. Those dots on the line are people. It’s really quite big.
As described by YellowstoneNationalPark.com, “The colors begin with a deep blue center followed by pale blue. Green algae forms beyond the shallow edge. Outside the scalloped rim a band of yellow fades into orange. Red then marks the outer border. Steam often shrouds the spring which reflects the brilliant colors. Grand Prismatic discharges an estimated 560 gallons per minute.”
I’m not sure why that one is Hubby’s favorite, but it is. Maybe it’s the size? Or the colors? Perhaps it’s how, depending on wind direction, you can be completely enveloped by fog.
It was a very long, but very good day. One of many on a vacation filled with amazing stuff. Including fabulous company. We couldn’t have asked for better travel companions. We’ll soon have to start planning our next big trip.
In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that our friends Annelies and Yves were excited about seeing some geysers, right? We were all excited, really. As I continued digging through the folder of pics from that day, two things struck me.
First, I couldn’t believe I forgot to post one of the shots we did in front of our Grand Teton cabin. I mean, really. Look how happy we all look.
Second, I forgot just how many super-cool geysers and other geothermal stuff we saw that day.
After we left West Thumb on September 14 (the subject of yesterday’s post), we headed to the Upper Geyser Basin. That won’t mean anything to most of you unless I add that Old Faithful is located in the Upper Geyser Basin.
Everyone’s heard of Old Faithful, right? Even if you’ve never even thought about taking a trip to Yellowstone.
Old Faithful is famous not because it’s the biggest geyser, but because it’s the most predictable. Hence the name. It generally erupts every 90 minutes or so. Day and night. All year round.
But Old Faithful is just the tip of the iceberg. The Upper Geyser Basin, which is where Old Faithful is located, has a land area of about two square miles and “contains the largest concentration and nearly one-quarter of all of the geysers in the world.” That quote and all the other educational/informational/boring info about geysers in this post is courtesy of the Upper Geyer Basin page at YellowstoneNationalPark.com (not the official NPS site).
Still, seeing Old Faithful erupt is like the quintessential Yellowstone experience. So we had to go watch.
You ever stood by a stove waiting for a pot to boil? That’s about how much fun it is waiting for a geyser to blow. Usually.
That day there was an odd undercurrent of excitement in the air. And it all seemed to be focused on some other stuff nearby.
See that little puff of steam toward the left of the frame? That’s the Giantess.
You know I HAVE to share more than the name, right?
GIANTESS GEYSER, temperature 200.7°F, interval of 0 to 41 eruptions per year, duration 3-43 hours, height 150-200 feet. “Giantess is unpredictable with long dormant periods. When it does erupt, the first hour is generally the most spectacular. An eruption has two phases-a water and steam phase. Water periodically jets to 200 feet high during the first hour and as the water phase subsides steam begins and roars from the 15×20 foot crater, sending a large column of steam into the atmosphere. Giantess’ vent has been probed to a depth of 62 feet below the lip. Subterranean connections exist between other Geyser Hill features and after an eruption, nearby Beehive Geyser may be triggered to erupt.”
So, while seeing Old Faithful was cool and all…
… seeing Giantess erupt would REALLY be something. There was quite a buzz going through the crowd. Seriously. Up to that point, Giantess had only erupted two times in 2011.
Once in early January, shortly after midnight. And once in May.
Then it also erupted on September 14. And we got to watch.
Remember, the last time it had erupted was in May. So we had Old Faithful and Giantess erupting at practically the same time.
And did you read that bit about the neighboring Beehive?
BEEHIVE GEYSER, temperature 199°F, interval of 7 hours to days, duration 4-5 minutes, height 150-200 feet. This geyser is appropriately named after its beehive-shaped cone, which is three and a half feet high and four feet in diameter. “Beehive, considered one of the largest active geysers in the world, erupts to a height of 200 feet. However, since its discovery, it has been unpredictable. It has eruptive intervals of eight to twelve hours, but it has infrequent eruptions as long as 3 to 10 days and dormancy of weeks to months. A small vent located a few feet east of Beehive, called Beehive’s Indicator, erupts 6-10 feet usually 10-20 minutes before an eruption. An eruption begins with occasional splashing, then small surges. These progress into an eruption as the ground rumbles and a narrow, straight fountain of water jets upward.”
Yep, it erupted, too.
Like Annelies said at the time, there were so many geysers going off, we didn’t know where to look next!
Those folks were a bit too close for comfort if you ask me.
After we took a gazillion pictures, we walked along the pathway that winds in among the geysers and other thermal features in the basin.
It’s amazing to see just how many shapes, sizes, and colors there are.
That’s one of my favorite shots. Look how you can see down into the pool. Remember, click on the image and you’ll get a bigger version to peruse. And look at that sky. It had been threatening rain off and on all day.
I kept telling everyone the rainy, gray skies were going to make for some dramatic lighting. Other than re-sizing, these are all pretty much SOOC shots.
I don’t remember the name of that one either, but it was sure interesting watching it bubble.
I am so glad we took our time and really looked at all of this stuff closely. It was amazing.
That one isn’t very colorful, but I love the way you can see down into it.
That’s it for Upper Geyser Basin.
But that’s not the end of the geysers for that day. There were more. Next stop… Midway Geyser Basin.
Know what’s there?
The Grand Prismatic Spring. The big daddy of all the pools.
Do you have a favorite shot from this post? Hard to pick, isn’t it? I think I like the river ones the best. But then there’s Hot Spring with the dramatic sky in the background. And the Colorful Pool.
Sigh…
I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for this year’s “favorite shots” post. Last year, it was the top 10 of 2010. I think this year I’ll do my favorite 11. Narrowing them all down is really going to be tough.
Since I STILL haven’t finished sharing vacation pics, here’s another installment for you. I actually started this post yesterday, December 14, which is why I selected the folder from September 14 to share. Looking at these pics, it seems like just last week that we were in Wyoming with Annelies and Yves. Other times, it feels like so long ago…
Anyway, I toyed with the idea of just using “West Thumb” as my post title. To see if y’all would be perplexed. Then I realized none of you probably give my post titles an iota of thought. So I decided to be all forthright and add the Yellostone National Park bit.
Did you know Yellowstone was the world’s first national park? It includes 2,219,789 acres, which makes the park larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. That’s big. And because it’s so big, it is very diverse.
There’s a great overview map someone posted, which might give you some idea as to the size of the park. If nothing else, it’ll help you understand how West Thumb, on the left (west) side of Yellowstone Lake, got its name.
Wait, doesn’t that sign say “Grand Teton National Park”? And didn’t I saw I was highlighting Yellowstone?
Normally, I’d post that pic with the GTNP pics, but I’m sharing by day, remember. And I really like that shot. It was actually taken on our way from GTNP to YNP. The two are only about 40 miles apart.
There’s the YNP sign.
Don’t you just love national park entrance signs?
YNP is most-famous for its glaciers and other geothermal features. But there’s just so much beauty to behold there. In every direction. Even in spots like this where you can see a bunch of dead trees. Those trees were burned in the massive forest fire that swept through the area in 1989.
It was a rather gray day when we started out. And a bit chilly. But sometime gray is good. If I’d taken this shot in the bright, midday sun, most of those colors in the grass would have been all washed out.
I think those pics were captured around Moose Falls, which is just north of the south entrance to the park. The first really exciting stop for the day, West Thumb Geyser Basin, was yet to come.
Annelies and Yves were quite excited. They’d never seen geysers before. And although West Thumb Geyser Basin is one of the smallest geyser basins in Yellowstone, which also makes is less-known, its location along the shore of Yellowstone Lake makes it the most scenic.
I can’t remember if we stopped at West Thumb when we were vacationing with the kids. It was gorgeous. Color, color everywhere. And I love color.
Hubby was looking into the pool. They really are quite hot. And, in some cases, a bit stinky.
This next shot is really cool. Not because of the image quality, or lack thereof, but because of what is shows…
… swimming elk! Who knew elk liked to swim?
They weren’t doin a we’have-to-do-this-to-cross thing. They were swimming for fun. They’d go in, swim around a bit, then get out. It was awesome.
The hot spring pools come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. I love how you can see down into the pools. This one was only about a foot across. The colors are actually algae and bacterial growth.
Those cones are actually underwater in the lake. Doesn’t that sort of look like a tropical island?
That pool was much bigger. And very orange. I guess there was lots of iron in the soil.
Those cliffs are from mineral deposits that have built up over millions of years.
That’s one of my favorite shots. I just love those colors! It’s the edge of a fairly large pool. If you look closely at the blue areas, you should be able to see how deep the pool is.
Actually, that might be a different section of the same pool featured in the previous shot. You can really see the depth there.
There you can see the lake and some mountains in the background.
And some more interesting colors. Annelies and I both took gobs of pictures at West Thumb.
I couldn’t help myself. I just love, love, love all the different colors.
That’s one of my favorite captures from the trip. We had such a good time.
There are actually a lot more pics from September 14. Rather than make this a really long post, I’ll save them for later. The next post maybe? We’ll have to see. I have lots to do and little time to fit everything in!
I think 2011 has been the most irregular blogging year for me ever. It’s been a crazy, hectic year. But a good year in many ways.
For those of you who haven’t given up on me… as mentioned in my last post, I have lots of pics from my recent girlfriend getaway weekend.
I always take lots of pics, but this time I had an ulterior motive. My girlfriend Tracey, who hosted this year’s shindig, is also the host of the Granny Trace Scraps and Squares blog. She doesn’t have lots of time to take pics around the home place. And doesn’t know how to edit pics like me. So I figured I’d capture some blog material for her.
I love a good excuse to take even more pics than usual. 🙂
Tracey’s house is like a country craft store. Except nothing is for sale. Oh, and you don’t need to walk around in fear of breaking stuff. The place is cozy, warm, and full of love.
I’m not exaggerating. Not even a little bit. See for yourself.
That Piper is one photogenic pup, isn’t she?
I even managed to get a few nice shots of Tracey.
That’s one of my favorites, ’cause she’s showing off her Christmas chicken. I found that months ago in an antique store. As soon as I saw it, I said, literally, “Oh my God, that chicken has Tracey’s name written all over it!”
Now, some folks might be all like, “Oh, nice. You got me a used cookie jar for Christmas. And it’s a chicken.”
Tracey loved it. Because she likes chickens. And old stuff. Besides, that cookie jar just happens to look like Big Joe, her largest, most rambunctious rooster.
Tracey has lots of critters.
There’s Piper, of course.
There’s turkeys.
There used to be more, but this is December. Thanksgiving just passed. And these birds are thankful they didn’t end up on someone’s table. (Tracey is planning on growing her own turkeys next year, so she needs to keep these alive.)
There are quite a few chickens, too. I didn’t count when I was there, but just this morning her blog said she has 37.
Thirty seven chickens!
At first, these birds were camera shy. Of course, it was towards evening when I made my first attempt at capturing some shots of them. Maybe the flash freaked them out? Who knows. But, by the next day, these bad boys were all about getting their picture taken. Really.
In that shot, Joe is looking dead-on at the camera. Here’s a close-up of his face.
See what I mean?
And Moses, the rooster with white on his wings, who had run previously every time I even though about touching the camera, was posing like there was no tomorrow.
I even managed to get a nice little group shot.
The hens have names, too. I just can’t remember them.
If you’re wondering how Tracey can name critters she’s planning on eating, don’t fret none. She only names the critters they aren’t going to eat.
That unfortunate flock confined to the coop is the “dinners.” Those are the eatin’ chickens.
And that’s it for your tour of Tracey’s lovely country home and the critters of Turtle Tree Farms.
Now, I think I’ll go make myself a nice egg sandwich…
It seems a bit weird, having been back from vacation for more than a month now, to launch into a series of “here’s what we did on our vacation” posts. So I won’t.
I will share a few pics, though. Just because I like them.
Colorado National Monument was one of our surprise finds. We actually only went there because we were in the neighborhood. None of us really had any idea just how breathtaking the place was.
This is not the sort of landscape you picture when you think of Colorado, right? As you can see on this map, it’s pretty close to Utah. We only did a drive-thru visit, really. We were on our way to Moab after all. But we HAD to stop and take some pictures.
The next pleasant surprise was Capitol Reef National Park. I mean, how interesting could a “reef” be in the desert Southwest?
VERY interesting.
The scenery was amazing. If you’ve never been out West, it’s hard to comprehend just how much wide open space there is. And fantastic scenery. It’s a bit mind-boggling, really.
That image immediately above is one of my favorite landscape captures.
This is another of my favorites. I love rocks anyway. Especially red rocks. And the lines, angles, and colors captured here really intrigue me.
If you click on any of those images, you’ll get a larger version to examine more closely if you like.
These are just a few of the really good images I am thinking of entering into a calendar contest sponsored by my employer. The problem is, I can only submit ONE shot.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to choose? Sigh…
Prior to this past weekend, we hadn’t been to the WV place since the last weekend in August. That’s unfortunate, really, because this really is my favorite time of year there. If you’ve been following for a long time, you know how much I enjoy watching the Fall colors emerge.
Not to mention the fact that it’s getting cooler. You can’t beat a nice, crisp, Fall morning in the northeast.
Especially when the sky is blue.
We haven’t had much blue sky these past few days. I don’t know about you, but here in Virginia, we’ve had rain, rain, and more rain.
The trees just look so much nicer with that saturated blue-sky backdrop.
Here’s my favorite leaf shot from this weekend…
I just love how the sun is lighting up those few leaves. That light isn’t photoshopped in. That’s what you get in the woods during early morning and close to dusk when the sun is low on the horizon filtering through the trees.
The girls were happy to be back in the woods, too.
I enjoyed being in a place that felt like home.
As much as I like this new/old house of ours, and the town, it just doesn’t feel like ours yet. We haven’t put our mark on it. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get a room or two decorated.
I really want to paint my office, too. Not this weekend, but soon. Right now, my office walls are off-white, the ceiling is white, there’s white woodwork, white curtains, white blinds, and a tan rug. The only thing hanging on the wall so far is my white clock.
Ugh. It’s so booooorrrrriiinnngggg.
Our bedroom could use some paint, too.
There’s so much to do, I don’t know where to start. It’s all small stuff. But it’s a lot of small stuff.
It’ll all get done eventually.
Decorating is the sort of thing one can’t do in a hurry. I need to live in the rooms for a while before I can settle on a color that feels right. And as much stuff as I have to hang on the walls, I can’t stick it just anywhere.
Sigh…
That’s why it felt so good at the WV place. An awful lot of time and love has gone into making that place cozy.