Day 5 - Blasting Off Faithfully

Waking up early, I had a pleasant surprise when I poked my head out of my tent. About 50ft from my tent was a calm furry Bison happily munching away on some grass. I tried to take a picture, but by the time I got my camera out, I realized that my batter was dead and I couldn't find the spare before the shot was ruined.

After a hearty breakfast of scouter's oatmeal (man I love that stuff), I hopped in the car to go to the Artists' Paint Pots, which I had wanted to see the day before, but I was rushing to get a site. Getting there, the parking lot was very full but the half mile loop was worth it. On the lower level, there was a geyser splashing away, while at the top of the loop, on a ridge, was the paint pot. It was really cool! The thick, bubbling clay really did look like an artists' oil paint.


From the paint pots, I took a detour along the firehole canyon road. It was a nice little drive through a small picturesque canyon complete with a small cascading waterfall. There were even a bunch of people swimming in the river just upstream of the falls.

From there, I continued heading south, stopping at the Fountain Paint Pot trail, mostly because I could see a geyser sputtering away from the road. It was a small, boardwalk covered loop with a couple of more paint pots. Only these ones were much redder because of the extra iron in the rock in the area. Coming around the back of the trail, Spasm Geyser was still sputtering away happily. It was the first geyser I had seen that was doing more than just bubbling so I spent a good time simply mesmerized by the spurts coming out of the ground.

Finally, I decided to move on to the Grand Prismatic Spring, which is the biggest hot spring in Yellowstone. I definitely wanted to stop there because the pictures just looked amazing, especially the colours.

Pulling into the parking lot, right by the trail was a bike rack! I
thought, "Awesome! They cater to people who are bike touring". If I had my bike with me (it was at the campsite locked to a tree), then I would have locked it up on the rack since it looked soo lonely. Of course, I found out later in the day that the rack was there because it was really close to the Old Faithful area where you could rent bikes. Still great though.

Anyway, on my way up to the Grand Prismatic Spring, I passed Excelsior Geyser. I don't know if I can imagine that pool being a Geyser since it was sooo huge! But it was still a beautful cerulean pool. Coming around to the grad spring, I noticed some wayward hats sitting in the bacterial mat just out of reach of the boardwalk. I took off my hat so that it too wouldn't succumb to the wind god's fancy. The spring itself was just another breathtaking sight. The colours! It made the spring almost look like one of those false colour elevation maps of Mars.

Finally, it was time to head to Old Faithful. Getting there, I couldn't beleive how built up it is. The parking lot is huge and the crowds were swarming like bees. I guess you have to when you're going to get a significant number of people who just come to the park to see that geyser and will miss all the other wonders the park has to offer.

I checked in at the Ranger's station and they figured Old Faithful would go off in about 40 min or so. It goes off roughly every 90 minutes. Even then, there were throngs of people near the visitor's center, so, I figured that in the meantime, I'd try to get away and find a better spot for pictures at some other point on the boardwalk surrounding the geyser. I managed to find a spot with nobody else and even had a little tree that could provide some foreground for the picture. Since I knew my camera could take a series of still shots in succession, I sat down trying to figure out how to get it to work. Unfortunately, I misunderstood how the camera was going to work. I could take a series of pictures, but it would only keep the last five pictures once you let go of the button. So, I naively held down the button all through the best part of the eruption, only to remove my finger later on. I had lost the best pictures. Oh well.

After the eruption finished up, it was still only mid-afternoon so I had plenty of time to explore the rest of the geysers in the area. There are dozens of them, but they are all much more sporadic than Old Faithful. Actually, there are plenty of geysers that are much more spectacular than Old Faithful, it's just the most popular because people can rely on being able to see it. It makes a big difference having a 10 minute eruption window instead of a 2 hour or more window for the other ones (if they're even predictable).

Of the geysers on my little jaunt, I'd have to say I liked Grotto Geyser the best. It was just sputtering when I got there, but the calcite formation was just so cool. They figure that the geyser broke out under a long gone tree, whose roots provided the template for the knobby formation we can see today. The walk also included the crystal clear Morning Glory Pool and an erupting sawmill geyser that was going strongly for well beyond the 30min I was sitting there watching it.


By this time, I was pretty geysered out, but I figured since I wouldn't be coming back for a long time, I still needed to see as much as possible. So, I stopped off at the Black Sand Basin trail. I have to admit, that I probably wouldn't have stopped if it weren't for the name the reminded me of the beautiful Black Sand Beach in Hawaii, but, like everything else in Yellowstone, it was worth it. There were two more pools in the area. Their colours were a little more muted, but it made a great opportunity to get some more pictures.

On the drive home, there was another couple of traffic jams. So, I stopped and managed to watch a gorgeous bull elk grazing away and a herd of deer being painted by an artist. How serene!