The last full day of Yellowstone we spent going through the Norris Geyser Basin. It took a little over two hours to get there from our hotel. We were driving through beautiful wooded mountains, when suddenly through the treetops, we could see steam. It looked like smoke from a fire. I thought that if I were a settler coming through, I would have thought there was someone nearby and would have looked for them. What I would have found would have startled me to no end.
When we got out of the car and walked down to the first area of geysers, it was like walking onto another planet. Steam was rising from different spots all over the place. Even through the boardwalk that we were using! I put my hand to the steam and it was warm. I later did a no-no and put my hand on the earth to see if it was warm, but it wasn't. You are not to get off of the boardwalks because the ground is so thin here it could break and leave you badly burned.
The picture below is of a mud pot. These are places where the water has mostly dried up, so instead of steam you get bubbling mud. One of the early explorers called it Hell bubbling up through, and I can well imagine that I would have thought the same thing.
#2 stood in the wind at one of the geysers so that the steam would blow over him. By the time it does that it isn't hot anymore. At one of the geysers, the steam rose about 30 feet above us, and then because of the cool air, it condensed on us as rain when we walked under it on the boardwalk.
The pools come in brilliant colors because of the bacteria living in them. The brighter blue the color the hotter the water. Depending on the color of the bacteria you can tell how hot the geyser is.
We ended the geyser watching by seeing Old Faithful do her thing. It is impressive, but I think I liked walking through all of the geyser basin better. After that we went to Grant Village area to learn about the wildfires of 1988. #2 did a presentation for 4-H on wildfires, so I thought it would especially be good for him to see this. I will post pix tomorrow of what we learned there. perhaps I will also get the wildlife pix up too. I tried getting the video on the computer and didn't have any luck. I'll keep trying.
When we got out of the car and walked down to the first area of geysers, it was like walking onto another planet. Steam was rising from different spots all over the place. Even through the boardwalk that we were using! I put my hand to the steam and it was warm. I later did a no-no and put my hand on the earth to see if it was warm, but it wasn't. You are not to get off of the boardwalks because the ground is so thin here it could break and leave you badly burned.
The picture below is of a mud pot. These are places where the water has mostly dried up, so instead of steam you get bubbling mud. One of the early explorers called it Hell bubbling up through, and I can well imagine that I would have thought the same thing.
#2 stood in the wind at one of the geysers so that the steam would blow over him. By the time it does that it isn't hot anymore. At one of the geysers, the steam rose about 30 feet above us, and then because of the cool air, it condensed on us as rain when we walked under it on the boardwalk.
The pools come in brilliant colors because of the bacteria living in them. The brighter blue the color the hotter the water. Depending on the color of the bacteria you can tell how hot the geyser is.
We ended the geyser watching by seeing Old Faithful do her thing. It is impressive, but I think I liked walking through all of the geyser basin better. After that we went to Grant Village area to learn about the wildfires of 1988. #2 did a presentation for 4-H on wildfires, so I thought it would especially be good for him to see this. I will post pix tomorrow of what we learned there. perhaps I will also get the wildlife pix up too. I tried getting the video on the computer and didn't have any luck. I'll keep trying.
No comments:
Post a Comment