It is amazing how close these entire herds get to the roads (and use the roads). Sometimes though, you are watching a group, and then a few other bison come up around the other side of you. You always need to be alert.
These bison really cover a lot of ground!
This quick clip pans the herd off the side of the road. There were even more beyond this view!
It was time to move on from the bison. Our goal is to be at Artist Point by 10 am for our best opportunity for sun-lit pictures. On our way – A beautiful trumpeter swan!
ARTIST POINT
We were about to take a selfie when Barry noticed an Asian gal had just taken someone’s picture, so we asked her if she would take one for us. She was happy to do so. We watched as she put the camera really low, I didn’t ask why. We just went with it. It was a nice picture of us, but we wanted the FALLS in the background, so I deleted it.
We took a selfie after all. MUCH better!!
From here we returned to the Brink of the Lower Falls to hike down to the observation deck near the apex of the falls.
It was really cool being right here where you fully sensed the power of the water!
Norris Geyser Basin
Next we headed over to Norris Geyser Basin. This basin holds the park record for the highest measured surface temperature of 280.4 degrees Fahrenheit and a subsurface temperature of 464 degrees Fahrenheit at 1,086 feet deep! It is also the most acidic hydrothermal system in Yellowstone.
My favorites are the blue/green and multi-colored ones.
Steamboat Geyser is located here in the Norris Geyser Basin. It JUST went off last Friday at 6 PM. Prior to that it was 2 1/2 months! And it was a month prior to that eruption! They never know when it will erupt. Sometimes it makes a lot of gurgling like it may go anytime, but then stops to nothing. A ranger told us that last Friday, Steamboat was doing nothing. He and the others left at 5 PM, and then got word at 6 that Steamboat was erupting like crazy! Because it tends to erupt for about an hour, the rangers were able to get back to see it. How cool would that be!?!
Echinus Geyser is the world’s largest acidic geyser. The waters are pH3-4.
Green Dragon Spring
Yellow Funnel Spring and Pearl Geyser
Vixen Geyser
At this point we decided to move on down the road to the Artists Paint Pots.
We drove past National Park Mountain, but did not get a picture. We were focused on getting to Midway Geyser Basin south of Madison. This is the location of the iconic Grand Prismatic Spring! As we walked across the bridge to the Midway Basin, we had to stop and capture the flow of the hot water runoff from the basin activity into the cold Firehole River.
There are 4 beautiful features at this location. We went clockwise on the loop beginning with the Excelsior Geyser. Its grand size was unexpected.
Excelsior Geyser erupted in bursts 50 to 300 feet high in the 1880s. The thermal violence formed the jagged crater and apparently ruptured the geyser’s underground system, causing the eruptions to cease after 1890. On September 14, 1985, Excelsior roared back to life with 47 hours of major eruptions. None have happened since, but it is impossible to predict when another eruption will occur.
While the eruptions have been erratic, the geyser’s outflow I nearly constant as it pumps more than 4000 gallons of boiling water per minute over the crater rim into the Firehole River.
GRAND PRISMATIC SPRING is an icon of Yellowstone. It is the largest and one of the most brilliant of Yellowstone’s many colorful hot springs. It is massive stretching approximately 200 feet across! Its water temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit has if often cloaked in steam. The steam offers some cool pictures, especially if you are patient, but if you can capture it the sun on it, it will give you stunning colors.
Thank goodness we knew about the Fairy Falls Trail that takes you up to get a birds-eye view of Grand Prismatic Spring. This was a must!! It did NOT disappoint! We actually hiked up the incline to the viewpoint twice! We had just got down the steep part when the sun finally broke through the clouds. Knowing it would intensify the colors of the spring, we quickly agreed to go back up! Glad we did.
Walking back to the Jeep from the trail we were able to check out some of flow of spring waters into the Firehole River from the opposite side of the river.
It has been a long day, so we stopped at Old Faithful. We had about 20 minutes or so to wait for it to erupt, so we did. There was no initial eruption action prior to the tall burst. It went off a about 5 minutes “early”, and was actually pretty underwhelming this time. Glad we saw it 5 years ago when it put on a great show. We may catch it again when we are back in this area in a couple days.
It was time to head back to Fishing Bridge via West Thumb. The road was amazing! We have actually been quite impressed with the roads within Yellowstone this year! It has also been fabulous not having heavy traffic everywhere! I think this is my favorite time of year to visit.
Along the drive we got some unexpected views of Yellowstone Lake that blew us away. WOW! It is so much larger than either of us was aware. Yellowstone Lake is 20 miles long and 10 miles wide, and absolutely gorgeous.
We are exhausted after an active 13-hour day. Tomorrow we are sleeping in! (Rain is predicted to start about mid-afternoon, but we’re still sleeping in!)