Take a virtual walkthrough of the Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park, while learning a little bit about each of the main features. Photos are all my own, and information was gathered from various sources.
Excelsior Geyser (Crater)
Although this once was an active geyser, it is now considered a crater left over from destructive eruptions. Eruptions in the late 1800s went up to 300 feet in the air. It also erupted, in a smaller fashion, for two days in 1985. The most striking thing about this feature is its size and deep blue boiling water.
Downstream from this feature, you’ll see its runoff flowing in to the Firehole River. This is what you first see walking across the footbridge. The near boiling runoff heat creates bright orange bacteria just before it hits the river.
Excelsior Geyser is able to discharge 4500 gallons of water each minute, flowing in to the Firehole River.
The boardwalk wraps around half of the crater, allowing you to see the deep blue water from many angles. You can’t help but imagine what would happen if it began erupting again!
Grand Prismatic Spring
The largest hot spring in Yellowstone, and the third largest in the world, Grand Prismatic Spring is easily among the most striking features in the park. Although it is larger than the Excelsior Geyser Crater, it discharges only 500-600 gallons per minute.
The views of Grand Prismatic from above, below, and up close are vastly different. There’s always something interesting to look at.
This view of Grand Prismatic Spring and the entire Midway Geyser Basin is accessible by an unofficial trail on the way to Fairy Falls.
Opal Pool
Although named as a pool, Opal is an unpredictable geyser. Heights of these violent eruptions can reach 30-70 feet, throwing debris around the pool, as you can see in the photo below. I believe even this past summer, Opal had a day of eruptions, and then the pool drained completely before filling back up.
Turquoise Pool
Turquoise Pool is the last feature you’ll see on the loop around the Midway Geyser Basin. It has a temperature between 140 and 160 °F and was named by members of the Hayden Expedition of 1878. Minerals in the water give Turquoise Pool an opaque, milky color.
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Getting back to what may be the best national park in the country just couldn’t wait very long. Here are a few photos from my second trip to Yellowstone National Park. This is just a tiny collection of the 10,000+ geothermal features in the area.
Upper Geyser Basin – Old Faithful Area
This first photo is of Shield Spring. Notice how thin the crust is right around the edges of the water. This is why it’s important to stay on the boardwalks, because you can and will fall through if you get too close!
Castle Geyser is a larger geyser, erupting up to 90 feet every 10-12 hours.
Crested Pool is one of the more colorful features, with the sudden change from orange to blue. This is one of my favorite features in the Upper Geyser Basin.
Depth: 42 feet
Temperature: 199 F +
Belgian Pool was once named Oyster Spring, but was renamed when someone from Belgium fell in and died in 1929.
Depth: ?
Temperature: 151-180 F
The size and color of Morning Glory Pool, on the north end of the Upper Geyser Basin make it well worth the walk to get there.
Depth: 23 feet
Temperature: 157-162 F
Midway Geyser Basin
North of the Upper Geyser Basin is the Midway Geyser Basin. The grounds surrounding Grand Prismatic Spring are painted with more unusual colors than one could possibly imagine.
Depth: 160 feet
Temperature 160 F
Discharge: 550 gallons/minute
The Firehole River is the final stop for water from many of the parks thermal features.
I’ve now been living and working in Grand Teton National Park for a full month, so I thought I’d share some of my experiences so far. After this post, I’d like to post something every few days. Now that the weather is warming up, and the rivers are clearing up, I’ll be able to get out and do a lot more! Sometimes, however, words just aren’t enough, so make sure you’re following Trent Sizemore Photography on Facebook to see all my best photos.
The drive to get here from North Carolina took three full days, and was pretty uneventful. It was cool to see other parts of the country, but it just didn’t compare to arriving in Yellowstone National Park. The views are like nothing else and almost immediately upon getting over the first mountain pass, I got to see my first grizzly bear, bison, and thermal features all in the same spot.
Yellowstone Day 1 – May 13
River just outside of Yellowstone east entrance
I saw these between Cody, Wyoming and the entrance to Yellowstone. I’m thinking they may be female bighorn sheep, but they may just be mountain goats.
Mountain goats or Bighorn Sheep?
Back in May, everything was still covered in feet of snow. This was one of my first sights inside the park.
Inside Yellowstone National Park
Driving through Yellowstone was something else, because the snow was piled up higher than the car in most spots around the mountains.
Driving over the mountain pass
This huge grizzly was eating on something between the road and part of the lake. On the other side of the road was a bison munching grass on the hillside.
Grizzly in YellowstoneGrizzly in Yellowstone with frozen lake in the background
Before driving down to Grand Teton National Park, where I’m living now, I camped one night in Yellowstone. I didn’t even scrape the surface of seeing the entire park, but I was able to see quite a lot before and after the night of camping in Madison campground.
The smell of sulfur gases from this boiling mud pit below was nearly overwhelming.
The two photos below are the view of the lower falls of the Yellowstone River from Artist Point. This is an excellent spot to get a perspective of the size of the entire Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
The walls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone are covered in these bright yellowish rocks, called Rhyolite, a type of volcanic rock.
This is looking up close at a little stream that carries water from thermal feature down to the river. The colors come from bacteria that is able to grow in these extreme conditions. Different colors represent different temperatures, with blues being the hottest. This particular one was probably between 125-150 degrees Fahrenheit. It is also extremely acidic, and you definitely shouldn’t be touching it. Many tourists get serious injured because of their curiosity.
This “waterfall” of boiling water is coming out of Excelsior Geyser crater and in to the Firehole River. This once active geyser still expels 4,000-4,500 gallons of 199 degree water every minute.
This is the huge crater left by the last violent eruption of Excelsior Geyser.
Here, the still snow covered mountains reflect in the many colors of the edge of Grand Prismatic Spring.
An up close view of the outside of the hot spring called Grand Prismatic Spring.
Here’s another look at the outflow from Excelsior Geyser Crater with a dramatic sunset.
The steam, the smells, the colors, and the sounds all add together to create an out of this world experience in each of the many geyser basin areas.
This small, but very active feature is Shell Spring, which would boil up every few minutes, then all the water would sink back down in to the unknown before rising up once again.
A single geyser steaming up with a great sunset.
Last photo of the day, showing a large field of geysers all steaming up in to the cold air.
Yellowstone Day 2 -May 14
After waking up VERY early to the freezing cold, howling wolves, and elk grazing outside my tent, I went out to the see the park in a way most people will never see it, completely alone. For hours, I never saw more than one or two other visitors, even in the most popular areas.
These two bison were munching some grass with a steaming thermal feature behind them. They seek refuge from the cold in these warmer areas.
Only the Gibbon River separated me from this frost covered bison. These animals are very large, and much more dangerous than most people assume.
The early morning cold makes the steam from the hot springs much thicker and travel much farther, creating an awesome landscape. During the summer, the warm temperatures don’t allow for as much steam because the temperature is closer to that of the hot features.
Another photographer exploring the area by himself. It’s scary to walk through that steam, not being able to see what’s beyond, and the screaming geysers beside you throwing up boiling water.
A far off view of Excelsior Geyser Crater shows just how big it really is.
This deep blue pool seemed to go on forever.
Up close and personal with another bison. (No, I wasn’t too close)
After exploring Yellowstone, I drove south to Grand Teton National Park to get settled in my dorm and get orientated with the area and the lodge that I’m working at. I’ll have a separate blog post with some pictures from this park.
