Yellowstone III | Personal
This was probably my favorite area of the park – Geyser Country!! Here is Old Faithful and one of the largest concentrations of geysers in the world. Old Faithful is definitely impressive. Walking the boardwalks of the upper and lower basin was also fantastic!!! We even met real life “geyser gazers”. I had read about them in my guide book, but didn’t think that was actually a thing, but these guys and gals come out for the “season” (as they call it) and wander the boardwalks every day calling in predictions to the visitor centre. We met a couple guys watching Lion Geyser and they were so interesting to talk to. They thought the geyser was going to erupt in about 10 minutes so we waited there with them. About 10 minutes later a huge roar came from the geyser and I screamed. They laughed and said, oh we should have told you it’s called Lion Geyser because it roars just before it erupts.
The boardwalks near the Old Faithful Inn were incredible and riddled with geysers, fumeroles along the river and hot springs. We also checked out the smaller Biscuit Basin and Black Sand Basin which were also worth the short drive and walk around. We spent a couple of nights here so we also had time for the Midway basin that held the incredible Grand Prismatic.
The first time we saw Old Faithful. It goes about every 90 minutes.
Geysers & springs at Biscuit Basin just a few miles from Old Faithful.
Emerald Pool.
We hustled back to the Upper Geyser Basin to see Daisy Geyser erupt. We missed it and ended up hiding under the benches from a quick downpour.
The Grotto Geyser was in full eruption for quite awhile that day.
Morning Glory was stunning!
This is Giant Geyser. It erupts very rarely, but I guess it did happen a couple days before we arrived.
Castle Geyser putting on a show.
A view of the Old Faithful Inn from the lower geyser basin boardwalks.
Old Faithful from a distance.
Spasmotic Geysers. My husband and youngest son got geysered out, but my oldest walked with me all day watching these incredible geysers. Every one so different.
Casey, one of the geyser gazers we met, told me to check out Grand Geyser that night. He thought it would erupt an hour earlier then predicted and sure enough it did! It was not disappointing!
Walking back to our hotel room we saw Castle geyser again erupt at dusk. This is the view of it from the other side.
Now this is a show stopper! Grand Prismatic!!! Wow! Wow, is all I can say! It was incredible. I only wish we could have seen it from above. There used to be a place you could scramble up to, but they’ve closed it to turn it into an actual trail. It wasn’t open yet when we were there, but if you go definitely check it out. If you google Grand Prismatic images the view from above is incredible.
After getting to Midway Basin to see Grand Prismatic early before it got really busy we drove around Firehole Lake Drive. We took in some of the features and then saw some ladies who looked very much like Geyser Gazers (long cargo pants, vests, radios and bucket hats) staring at Great Fountain. I asked them what they thought and they said they just saw the pool fill up and thought it would erupt in an hour. Good enough for me. We toured around a little more and came back for the show!
We saw White Dome Geyser erupt as we were standing at Grand Fountain.
White Dome just as it finished erupting.
Great Fountain did not disappoint. I took dozens of pictures, but narrowed it down to two here. In the middle of the eruption, White Dome went off again behind it.
Our last stop before heading out of the park was Fountain Paint Pots. There are four main thermal features in the park – geysers, fumaroles, mudpots & hot springs. We saw them all in every country, but this basin held all four in one spot.
