2023 Road Trip: Yellowstone National Park (5/24/2023)

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Up early so we could be among the first into Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park (1872). Our Senior National Park Passes got us into the park for free.

We were now in Wyoming. Some roads within the park were still closed due to snow, and there were several road-work areas narrowing the road to one lane.

Gibbon Falls and the Gibbon River

Gibbon Geyser Basin:

Gibbon Geyser Basin general view(KSS)

Blood Geyser, with an average temperature of 196.7°F/91.5°C,
with iron sinter/deposits of red and orange

Bubbling Flash Spring

A bit of a climb for a view down on Gibbon Geyser Basin;
I'm afraid the gray skies have muted the colors (KSS)

Another view from Paintpot Hill (KSS)

Some of the bubbling Paintpots on the hill,
in red, green, blue, and gray

This Paintpot is filled with a soft clay-like
substance, so the bubbles are really cool

Hot Spring GAPNN011

Farther north is the Roaring Mountain; more like
hissing from all the fumaroles/steam vents

Obsidian Cliff is a source of volcanic
glass that has been used for tool-makng
by the indigenous Americans for over
11,000 years and has been found along
trade routes from western Canada to Ohio

Bison bison/American Bison of which about 5,900
were counted in Yellowstone in summer 2022

The bison are the dots on the left, near the Mammoth Hot Springs Lower Terraces

Mammoth Hot Springs Terrace Grill (1936, by
Robert Reamer in Colonial Revival and Art Moderne styles)

Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel (1913 wing seen here,
1936-1937 renovation, both by Robert Reamer)

Yellowstone Post Office (1935-1937, by Louis A Simon
in French Renaissance Moderne style)

Double Cavalry Barracks (1909) was the largest building
in Fort Yellowstone, from when the US Army
administered the national park (1886-1917)

Bachelor Officers' Quarters (1909) became the
Albright Visitor Center in 1919

Mammoth Hot Springs Lower Terraces:

Liberty Cap (as in French Revolution) was created by
mineral deposits of an especially high-spouting hot spring

Plenty of bison calves were seen

(Unofrtunately the Upper Terrace Drive was closed.) Mammoth Hot Springs Upper Terraces:

A huge (mammoth?!) area of hot springs rising through
limestone, dissolving the calcium carbonate, then
depositing calcite, which creates hard edges around
a pool of water, resulting in "terraces"

An attempt to photograph the terraces

Rustic Falls of Glen Creek (KSS)

Midway Geyser Basin:

The Midway Geyser Basin runoff into the Firehole River

The coolness of the weather means there is more steam (KSS)

The steam clears enough to see into the Excelsior Geyser Crater

The wind blows some of the steam off
the Excelsior Geyser Crater (KSS)

You are seeing dark micro-mini terraces, so that the water
is actually flowing from the top towards the bottom right

Too much steam to see the glorious hues of the [south half
of the] Grand Prismatic Spring; the colors are from different
species of thermophile/heat-loving bacteria living in the
progressively cooler water around the spring

These footprints indicate that the
bison wander just about anywhere!

The north half of the Grand Prismatic Spring

 

More bison footprints in the orange bacteria runoff

Um, a hotspot for yellow bacteria?

Opal Pool has an average temperature of 132 °F/56 °C,
and as a geyser, may spout once a year?

Turquoise Pool is a hot spring

The clear water of the Turquoise Pool

Walking through the steam, which is hot!

Very unfortunately, the Fairy Falls Trail was closed, which would have taken us to view the Grand Prismatic Spring from above.

Upper Geyser Basin:

Old Faithful Lodge (1923 as detached buildings, consolidated
in 1926-1927 by Gilbert Stanley Underwood and
Daniel Ray Hull in National Park Service Rustic style)

When we stopped at the Visitor Center in West Yellowstone this morning, we found out the time of the last eruption of Old Faithful. We added 90 minutes to that time for the rest of the day, to get an

approximation of the next eruption that would take place when we arrived at Old Faithful.

Old Faithful Geyser is always steaming

Crowds of people wait all around Old Faithful,
as it spit water on and off for a half hour (our
timetable was off by a quarter hour) (KSS)

Okay, the geyser is starting to blow: the "water fountain"
is seen on the left side when the steam is blown away (KSS)

The eruption is starting to build up (KSS)

Old Faithful Geyser can reach a
height of 106-185'/32-56 m (KSS)

The eruption is finishing up (KSS)

Video of Old Faithful:

Old Faithful Visitor Education Center (2010,
by Cushing Terrell, inspired by Arts and Crafts
and the Rustic style of Old Faithful Inn)

Still a large pile of snow left from winter (KSS)

Old Faithful Inn (1903-1904, by Robert Reamer
in National Park Service Rustic style)

Had a late lunch at Geyser Grill of Snow Lodge (1958)

Whimsical sculpture hangs from the Geyser Grill ceiling

Now that we are in Wyoming, we had to have
something made from bison, thus a Bison Bratwurst

Heading south out of Yellowstone National Park, the
plowed snowbank has shrunk, but is still 4-5'/1.2-1.5 m high

We crossed the Continental Divide at least three
times, here at an elevation of 8,391'/2,557.5 m

Lewis Lake in Yellowstone is still frozen

Now we have left Yellowstone National Park, and are in
Grand Teton National Park (1929) at Jackson Lake Overlook

View from Colter Bay Visitor Center in
Grand Teton National Park

Dinner was at the Village Cafe in Dubois, WY

Antler arch at Stagecoach Inn & Suites in Dubois, WY

Stagecoach Inn & Suites: we are usually assigned a room
on the second floor where we have to take the stairs

Next: University of Wyoming Art Museum.