Our final days in Yellowstone were reserved for seeing the park’s must sees – the Grand Prismatic Spring, Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone . The Grand Prismatic Spring, located in the Middle Geyser Basin, is in the western region of the park. The morning of our visit was overcast and single digit cold; our guide, Julie, warned us that between the low hanging clouds and dense steam lingering in the cold air, we might not get a clear view of the Grand Prismatic Spring. So much for those iconic guide book pictures of the football field sized pool with its vibrant orange, yellow and green rings juxtposed against a deep blue center with wispy tendrils of steam rising from the surface. An elevated wooden boardwalk looped through the geyser basin passing near the Grand Prismatic Spring and several smaller pools. We walked carefully, so as not to slip on the thin crust of ice forming on the walkway boards as the steam condensed and froze. It was surreal hiking though the warm steam and like the boardwalk, we too found our jackets, hats and even our eyelashes coated with an icy film. Just as Julie predicted, we were barely able to make out the Grand Prismatic Spring, seeing only a large crater belching thick steam.
Our consolation prize was a clear view of the much smaller Opal Pool. Fringed in brilliant orange, the watery center is reminescent of an opal with its pale blue and pink hues. Opal Pool is acutally a geyser, not a thermal spring and last erupted in 2006. The color of the pool actually comes from a type of heat loving bacteria called thermophiles that live in cooler temperatures around the edges.
We googled Old Faithful’s schedule of eruptions and headed to Upper Geyser Basin like millions of tourists before us to watch one of nature’s most predicatble displays. As we walked from the parking lot, we saw a towering column of water and steam rising from the distance. Old Faithful was not due to erupt for another 30 minutes – could the geyser have stopped being faithfully predicatble and erupted early? As we approached the basin, we could see a powerful jet of water spraying over 100 feet high from a narrow cone as if from a high pressure nozzle. Turned out this was Beehive Geyser, a not so predictable gusher that typically erupts once, or sometimes, twice daily on its own timeline for about 5 minutes. How lucky to have timed our arrival to see this impressive jet of water and steam shoot skyward!
We had some time before Old Faithful’s performance so we hiked the short loop trail around the Upper Geyser Basin. We approached the Old Faithful Inn, an expansive lodge constructed of logs and stone, built in 1903-1904 shortly after Yellowstone became a national park only to discover the lodge was closed due to COVID. Sadly, we were unable to go inside to see its legendary stone fireplace and hand-crafted copper, wood and iron clock.
The Upper Geyser Basin is a vertible hot spot with its many themal springs, mudpots, fumiroles and geysers of which Old Faithful happens to be the best known. Hiking the basin, we were enveloped in wisps of steam and wrinked our noises at the strong smell of sulfur. Water bubbled and oozed from the hillside streaking its path with vibrant colors of gold and copper.
The landscape was peppered with small craters, bubbling, steaming, filled with water brilliantly colored by bacteria and minerals. Finishing our loop, we saw spurts of steam and water begin to bubble from Old Faithful. People gathered around the viewing platform anxiously awaiting its eruption. Watching the Old Faithful Geyser spew water and steam towards the heavens is a Yellowstone tradition; it was these unique thermal features that inspired the establishment of Yellowstone as the world’s first national park in 1872.
Of the nearly 500 geysers in Yellowstone, Old Faithful is one of six that park rangers currently predict eruptions. The geyser has faithfully lived up to its name, only lengthening the time between eruptions by roughly 30 minutes in the last 30 years. Because thermal features change constantly in the park as a result of ongoing volcanic activity beneath the earth’s surface, rangers say it is possible that Old Faithful may stop erupting someday. In fact, the geyser has gotten less powerful over time and when it erupted it was a more gradual, less forceful eruption than than of Beehive. Nonetheless, given the long history of this storied geyser, watching Old Faithful reliably perform to the minute is a Yellowstone must see.
Though only the eighth largest US national park by area at 3500 square miles, Yellowstone is one of the most geologically diverse. In addition to the over 10,000 hydrothermal features in the park, it has its own Grand Canyon. Twenty miles long and bookended by upper and lower falls, the thousand foot deep canyon was carved by the force of the Yellowstone River. The river cascades off a 300 feet cliff creating the spectacular Lower Falls.
The West Thumb Geyser Basin is yet another concentrated area of thermal activity in Yellowstone. We stopped to explore this basin on our way out of the park. Thermal vents on the hilllside belched impressively high plumes of steam into the cold air.
Once again a raised boardwalk allowed us to perch atop this steamy, bubbling cauldron of nature. Steam vents were interspersed with bubbling vaporous pools of colored water surrounded by patches of vegetation distant enough rfom the heat to maintain their coat of snow. Hiking through the West Thumb was otherwordly, like hiking on a different planet.
As we drove south towards Jackson Hole, we stopped to admire the final must see in park; Yellowstone Lake, the largest fresh water body not only in the park but anywhere in the world above 7000ft altitude. Off in the distance, across the lake, we gazed at the Grand Tetons, the mountain range in yet another iconic US national park. In awe of the beauty and geological diversity of Yellowstone, appreciative of the wildlife and natural wonders we’d seen, we exitted the park, ready for our next few days of adventure in Grand Teton National Park.