Old Faithful

Watching the Old Faithful Geyser erupt is a Yellowstone National Park tradition and it was such unique thermal features that inspired the establishment of Yellowstone as the nation's first national park in 1872.

Old Faithful is one of nearly 500 geysers in Yellowstone and is one of six for which the park predicts eruptions.  The geyser has lived up to its name, only lengthening the time between eruptions by about 30 minutes in the last 30 years.

Behind the Old Faithful viewing area is a series of boardwalks that weave around the geyser and into the Upper Geyser Basin, which is packed with other [smaller] geysers and geothermal features.

Passing by Old Faithful (before eruption)

Continuing past Old Faithful

Into Upper Geyser Basin

Hydrothermal features can be grouped into two general categories:  those with limited water (mudpots, as we saw in the previous blog) and those with a lot of water (hot springs and geysers).  After visiting the mudpots yesterday, we now proceed to the land of geysers.

Anemone Geyser

Field of geysers

Here are a few more of the geysers and other geothermal features we meet on our walk through Upper Geyser Basin behind Old Faithful.

Beehive Geyser

Heart Spring

Lion Geyser

North Goggles Geyser

Ear Spring

Beach Spring

Doublet Pool

Sponge Geyser

Pump Geyser

Infant Geyser

In addition to the beauty of the Upper Geyser Basin, we're here for Old Faithful and we return to the viewing area just before the next eruption.

Old Faithful getting started

Old Faithful (right on time)

The Old Faithful location in the park is not just about Old Faithful, but also other small geysers and hydrothermal pools of the Uper Geyser Basin with all its geothermal features and we appreciate and enjoy both.

Artists' Paintpots in Yellowstone National Park

Artists' Paintpots in Yellowstone is known for it's mudpots, which put on an intriguing show of splattering mud as they erupt.  Mudpots are acidic hydrothermal features with a limited water supply.  Microorganisms use hydrogen sulfide, which rises from deep within the earth, as an energy source to help convert gas to sulferic acid, which breaks down rock to wet clay and creates the area's distinctive smell of rotten eggs.

The area is covered by a one-mile (1.6 km) loop trail that enters a partially burned lodgepole pine forest then winds across the wet meadow on a boardwalk.  The hydrothermal area on the loop trail has colorful hot springs, mudpots, and small geysers with wet clay bubbling due to the gases escaping through the ground.

Artists' Paintpots

We start on the boardwalk to the paintpots and  enter the loop.

Boardwalk in

First views of paintpots

The Blood Geyser has a high concentration of iron oxide in the water, staining the surrounding rocks a rich red color.  The geyser has been erupting since 1882 and can erupt up to 6 feet (1.8 meters) and discharge 150 gallons (567 liters) a minute.

Blood geyser

Continuing through the paintpots

The hydrothermal system at Artists' Paintpots acts like a double boiler, with boiling water underneath the ground generating a hot acidic steam that heats the ground above it, causing the rocks to dissolve into clay.  The clay receives water from precipitation and snow melt, causing mudpot consistency and activity to vary with the season and amount of preciptation.

Mudpots

As the trail loops around to the other side, we get more spectacular views of mudpots and paintpots.

Looping around to the entrance

What a spectacular (and unexpected) walk through the beauty and geography of this fabulous hydrothermal display.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone South Rim

The South Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is located several miles south of Canyon Village where we are staying and the road to it from the North Rim leads through Canyon Village and then south across a bridge over the canyon to the 3.2 mile (5.1 km) South Rim Trail.

We first stop at Brink of the Upper Falls, just before the bridge to the South Rim, and view the 109 foot (33 meter) drop of the Upper Falls from the top of the falls.

Brink of the Upper Falls

Brink of the Upper Falls

We cross the bridge over the canyon and drive along the South Rim access road to Artist Point at the end of the road, one of the most beautiful vistas in the park, looking down the canyon toward the Lower Falls.

Artist Point was named in 1883 when it was believed that this was the location used in Thomas Moran's 1872 sketches of the falls.  It was later determined that the sketches were made from the North Rim, but the name Artist Point remained.

View down the canyon toward Lower Falls

We follow the trail from Artist Point along the South Rim to several Upper Falls viewpoints, popping in and out of the woods to spectacular sights as we hike along the 3.2 mile (5.1 km) path.

Views along the trail

Spectacular views of the canyon

More views of  the Upper Falls as we approach

Looking across the canyon, we see on the other side the North Rim trail that we took yesterday to the viewpoint overlooking the top of the Lower Falls.

North Rim trail to Upper Falls viewpoint

As we approach the Upper Falls, rainbows appear in the falling water as it splashes into the plunge pool at the base of the waterfall.

Waterfall rainbows

After last looks back at Upper Falls, we follow the trail back along the South Rim and through the forest to Artist Point where we are parked.

Last views of Upper Falls

South Rim trail

 Returning to Artist Point

The trail along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone has given us a completely different perspective of the canyon and the falls from that of the North Rim yesterday.  The two together are complementary and spectacular.