The intent of the trip was to visit my friend Lucy in Idaho and hang out with her family, but at the same time, visit Yellowstone since it's a 1.5 hour drive from her house.
After I learned that Mt Rushmore was *not* at Yellowstone, I had no idea what there was to see there.
Apparently, geysers, paint pots and hot springs are there, including the "famous" Old Faithful.
Here is a little explanation of "paint pots" since you will see several pics below:
A mudpot, mud pool or paint pot is a sort of hot spring or fumarole consisting of a pool of usually bubbling mud. The mud is generally of white to greyish color, but is sometimes stained with reddish or pink spots from iron compounds. When the slurry is particularly colorful, the feature is then called a paint pot.
Mudpots form in high-temperature geothermal areas where water is in short supply. The little water that is available rises to the surface at a spot where the soil is rich in volcanic ash, clay and other fine particulates. The thickness of the mud usually changes along with seasonal changes in the water table.
The mud takes the form of a viscous, often bubbling, slurry.
There are 2 parts of Yellowstone: West Yellowstone and East Yellowstone.
To see the landscape/sight-seeing part of Yellowstone to see Old Faithful and the hot springs, that is on the West Yellowstone side. This is what we did since we came from Idaho.
If you care about camping, fishing, and water sports, then that is on East Yellowstone side.
When we went, the weather was warm (mid 80s) and the view was lovely. I even got a tan.
It was a pretty nice day trip. We were able to see all we wanted to see in half a day and make back home in the afternoon.
Below are a few samples of the pictures I took. Please check out the entire web album (link below).
Buffalo! Up close!
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
Yay, its us in front of a hot spring
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
Lucy and Janie at Beryl Spring
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
Gibbon Falls
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
The view of Artists Paintpots
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
Very blue hot spring, at Artist Paintpots
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
Lucifer at Lower Geyser Basin, Fountain Paint Pot
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
Firehole River at Midway Geyser Basin
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
Colorful hot spring at Midway Geyser Basin
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
The famous Grand Prismatic Spring.
The largest hot spring in the United States, and the third largest in the world.
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
The Grand Prismatic Spring is soooo beautiful.
The vivid colors in the spring are the result of pigmented bacteria in the microbial mats that grow around the edges of the mineral-rich water
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
Sapphire Pool (but its hot!) at Biscuit Basin
The deep blue color of the water in the center of the pool results from the intrinsic blue color of water, itself the result of water's selective absorption of red wavelengths of visible light.
The deep blue color of the water in the center of the pool results from the intrinsic blue color of water, itself the result of water's selective absorption of red wavelengths of visible light.
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
Another colorful hot spring at Biscuit Basin
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
Old Faithful! It's very predictable
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| From Yellowstone, WY |
See the full album here: https://picasaweb.google.com/103260624714096898586/YellowstoneWY
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