Skip to main content

Day 81 - Yellowstone Geyser Gazing

See Great Fountain, Castle, Daisy and Riverside geysers erupt in 60 seconds:

The crew awoke early after a cold night camping with intentions to drive to Cody, Wyoming.  But after Steve, Lanny and Landon determined that they needed to drop Landon off at the airport at noon the next day, they decided to take their rental car and drive south to Jackson instead.   Thus ended the very fun vacation within my adventure. I had to continue onward, north toward Glacier National Park in Montana, but wanted to do more geyser gazing before I left Yellowstone. Luckily, earlier in the morning, all of us had indulged in a wonderful breakfast buffett at the historic Yellowstone Lake Hotel-- a fitting end to the vacation. 

I converted the van back into a camper and drove two hours back to Old Faithful geyser basin, arriving just as threatening rain clouds flew in above. Unfazed, I hiked in toward Daisy geyser, but she had erupted before I arrived. I walked north toward the famous Morning Glory hot spring then to Grand and Old Faithful geysers, where I luckily caught Castle unexpectedly going off. 
 


Enough time had passed by now that I could backtrack to Daisy to see her show as the rain began to fall. I had purchased a comprehensive guide to Yellowstone geysers so I knew how to read the pools and I had the geyser times predictions in hand to plan my route.  After Daisy's angled eruption, I walked to Riverside and waited an hour before she erupted, spraying elegantly over the river. 


The final major geyser left on my list was Great Fountain, a massive geyser with a beautiful crater, and located fifteen minutes up the road. This geyser had a four hour window and I was an hour and a half into it, so I was happy when I arrived and saw the pool nearly full (empty means it erupted already).  I waited in the car as rain drizzled and then got out of the car to stand in pouring rain just as the geyser went off. A marvelous eruption: Great Fountain bubbles for a few minutes before all the water drains inside the opening then a small pause before booming a bomb of water a hundred feet to the sky. Watch the video for the pause then boom!

I watched Great Fountain go off for a full hour while reading my geyser book. Then I drove to Fountain geyser, but it had already erupted. I drove on to Midway to see Grand Pismatic, the world's largest hot spring again and got a great view from atop a hill bluff across the road (selfie pic). I then drove to watch a smaller Flood geyser erupt at a scenic Jurassic-looking spot. Following a final 10pm walk around the Biscuit Basin area, I drove to the Old Faithful Inn parking lot, found a quiet spot and secretly camped for the night. 

See Great Fountain, Castle, Daisy and Riverside geysers erupt in 60 seconds:





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 43 - Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef, a national park centered around a 90 mile ancient seabed reef was next on my list. A sensationally scenic three hour drive from Bryce, back through Escalante, and then through a national forest led me to the park.  A stop by the visitor center to get the lay of the land and insider info on local free BLM campsites complete, I set out on Chimney Rock trail up the the top of the first reef to get a view.  Yes sir!! The weather was ideal for hiking and the views completely blissful, but I was frankly tired today. I set out along the scenic road down the west side of the reef and remember wanting to take a nap-- but still having a sense of urgency to complete the desert portion of my trip-- I pushed on and set out to hike down the Capitol Gorge and Grand Wash canyons. The Capitol Gorge had a "Pioneer Wall" with inscriptions from the early 1900s and the Grand Wash had a nice narrow section with towering canyon cliffs all around. I took a photo of the surrounding reef...
1 comment
Read more

Day 35 - Escalante River

Our group of eight intrepid but novice backpackers and two incredibly experienced guides gathered for breakfast at 8am to meet, greet and bulk up for 5 days in the Escalante River area. We laid out all our gear to ensure we had the needed hiking, camping and survival supplies and drove to our trailhead for departure.  We hiked along a trail following the course of the Escalante River for a mile or so before getting to our first of many river crossings. Wet feet were not something we could avoid so we simply hiked across and sometimes down the river. When the river ran close to the canyon walls we knew we would have to find a shallow entry to the river, then cross the river to the bench on the other side.  Guides Andrew Skurka and Alan Dixon offered instruction along the way on map reading and route finding and information on local vegetation and geology and how the knowledge of both helped make your off trail travel more efficient. For example in geology their were two main ro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 54 - Great Sand Dunes

I awoke to clear skies, a dry mattress and pillows, a second hot shower and a waffle-filled motel breakfast. I decided to head east to Great Sand Dunes National Park in order to climb 700 foot sand dunes surrounded by snow-covered alpine mountains--a rare site.  Just about every road in Colorado goes over a pretty high mountain pass eventually, and this three and a half hour journey didn't disappoint.  And Great Sand Dunes didn't disappoint either. After securing a dune-side campsite and waiting out a rainstorm, I set out to climb the dunes for a sunset view. Great Sand Dunes is also famous for its Medano Creek wave-like flow and ankle-deep water, making it popular with young kids. I hiked through it and started climbing the dunes, first to a high dune on the east side and over to the next highest dune and then the next highest et until I got to the highest one-/ properly called High Dune. I sat down, setup my phone to capture a time-lapse of the beautiful sunset my eyes were ...
1 comment
Read more