Yellowstone, part 2

You can spend weeks in Yellowstone National Park and you still won't see it all. We had just a few days and we wanted to see as much as possible. Which is not that easy with two small kids. But we did see this and that. 

First place we went to see was Upper Geyser Basin. It's, according to the brochure, which we paid 50 cents for (so it must be true), a thermal complex with the largest concentration of geysers in the world. Sounds good. Lets go!

Thermal complex with the largest concentration of geysers has probably the largest parking of all the thermal complexes. And even in low season it's not so easy to find a parking spot. But we managed. Crowds of tourists go to Upper Geyser Basin only to see one geyser - Old Faithful. It's the most famous geyser in Yellowstone. Of course to say this is not enough for all the brochures that write about it, so Wyoming describes it as the most famous geyser in the world. It might even be true.

Old Faithful erupts regularly every 90 minutes or so. We waited with a few hundred of other people and we witnessed this unusual show. Despite crowds sitting on benches around the geyser, Old Faithful eruption is really impressive. And despite the fact that waiting for it to erupt we've seen some other, less faithful geysers erupt in the distance.

What we saw later was something we did not expect. Geysers were erupting everywhere around. Few minutes walk from visitors center it was not crowded any more, even despite the fact that all the trails in Upper Geyser Basin are fully stroller/wheelchair accessible and paved and there are boardwalks leading to geysers. 

It's really worth to take this walk, as it's quite empty and amazingly beautiful. There are almost 20 geysers, over dozen of hot spring and thermal pools. And it's all in just a 3-mile-long walk. And you can learn all the definitions of all those thermal miracles.

So a geyser is a place where heated water erupts suddenly from underground. There are cone geysers which erupt from cones or mounds usually in steady jets. Fountain geysers erupt from a pool usually in intense bursts and they seem much less organized. There are over a thousand geysers in the world and more than half is in Yellowstone. Quite impressive..

Besides geysers there are also hot springs. Generally there is no generally accepted definition of a thermal spring but usually a place of natural and calm discharge of water warmer that its surroundings. Mudpots (in Polish called mud vulcanos which is in fact a little different natural phenomena) is a sort of acidic hot spring. You can see them in Yellowstone but not outside Upper Geyser Basin. There were one of our favourites. Mudpots are basically pools with boiling mud. In Yellowstone they are created by thermophilic bacterias, which produce sulfuric acid.

Last but not least there are fumeroles. They are pretty much the same thing as geysers besides the fact that there is not enough water to make it to the surface. Instead of water we can only see steam going up in the air.

Estimated eruprtion times of five geysers in Upper Geyser Basin are written on the board in visitors center. Others have different cycles. Some of them erupt few times per hour, other few times per year. Those cycles can change quite often, which is one of the most beautiful and most interesting things in Yellowstone.

The park is in fact a living organism. What we've seen can look completely different in a few years. Small earthquake, some movements in underground water flows can make some springs dry out, others can be created instead, geysers that were asleep for many years can wake up suddenly. Small geysers can start spitting water up high in the sky. Whole hills can heat up and boil all the trees roots killing them. New thermal features can emerge. For example, just a year ago after two decades something awoke geyser Morning in Lower Geyser Basin and it started erupting again.

That's where we went next day. But before that, on our way back on the first day we stopped, among other places in Midway Gesyer Basin. That's where Grand Prismatic Spring is, one of the most colorful places in the park. Hot spring in the middle is blue, on the edges it turns orange, sometimes even brown thanks to colonies of thermophilic algeas. It flows slowly to the river below. There is a lot of steam coming from the water but, unlike most of hot springs and pools in the park, there is no smell of hydrogen sulfide.

In Midway Gesyer Basin there is Excelsior which used to be one of the largest geysers in the world, erupting up to 300 feet. It was back in the ...1880s. Probably Excelsior blew itself from within. It woke up after 100 years but after few eruptions it went back to being quiet.

When at the end of the day we realized that we have to drive over an hour to our almost free camping and gas prices in the park are high (there are a few Sinclair stations, they are reasonably expensive adding, as far as we remember, 30-40 cents to a gallon to what we used to pay in Jackson, WY) we decided it was time to move. Next morning we took our trailer and went to Bridge Bay campground. A little over 20 USD for a night with no hook ups. Not bad considering it's a national park. Although it was one of the worst campgrounds we've been to. 

It's run by a private operator who, trying to squeeze as many rvs as possible, set up sites along one-way road so you go out of a trailer straight onto the asphalt. We've been at the very end of the street so we didn't have to drive wrong way too much, but others had to tow their huge trailers all the way up the street in the opposite direction. Oh well, still it was better than to pay for gas. There are cheaper campgrounds in Yellowstone, but they don't open before mid-June or beginning of school vacation.

Practical tip: we asked rangers about dump station and they suggested the one in Bay Bridge is for campground residents or requires a fee. It's not and it doesn't. It's outside the campground and there is no information anywhere about fees, so you can go there, dump, fill in tanks with clean water and go on. There is also a parking just next to it where you can leave a trailer for a few hours to have some more time on your last day. Back to the campground - it gets full quickly. We got there just before 12, not bad knowing our usual timing... It got full that day and it was still before beginning of school holidays.

Next two and a half days we've been closer to all the wonders of Yellowstone. Near Bridge Bay there is a place we decided to skip - it's Heyden Valley with Yellowstone river. It's supposed to be one of the best places to watch Yellowstone wildlife. But it requires lots of patience, binoculars and some luck. First when it comes to finding parking space, second - luck with animals. We didn't really believe we had it so we didn't waste our time.

In contrary to all the best descriptions of Heyden Valley for us it was a bit frustrating. Every time we were going back to our trailer all the people around would drive really slowly or stop suddenly to see some bisons. We've already seen lots of them on Antelope Island. We felt like spoiled children thinking, "come on, they are just bisons, move on". Maybe that's why gods of Yellowstone didn't let us see any real wildlife on the way.

We have to admit, we didn't have any luck with wildlife. Registering at the campground we found out there was a bear walking around it this very morning. Some Germans we met earlier told us stories about bears and wolves they'd seen. We haven't seen neither...

But what we came there to see were geysers. After a day of eruptions we felt like seeing some bubbling mud. You can see it for example in Lower Geyser Basin full of colorful volcanos and Mud Volcano. Mud Volcano is near  Cooking Hillside - a hill which after an earthquake in 1978 really cooked inside. Temperature by the gound reached 94C / 205F!!! Once covered with forest the hill now is full of dead trees sticking up.

In Norris Geyser Basin on top of thermal features there is also a museum. We had high expectations so we visited Norris twice - first time it was already closed. We got in second time - not worth it. Few pics and models, boring and not very stroller friendly. 

We also went to see Porcelain Pot. It's one of the quickest changing places in Yellowstone. It's a large, flat area with water flowing out in many places. In this colorful basin narrow mouths are quickly clogged but water under pressure easly finds a new outlet. Springs can also create pretty shapes, like for example heart.

On the other side of this complex there is a geyser called Steamboat, which used to erupt even higher then Excelsior, up to 120 meters. It's worth a walk as you can witness the eruption. Chances are slim though, as the frequency is between 4 days and 50 years.

Situated more to the north Mammoth Hot Springs is a must see. Hot spring terraces are near historic fort of Yellowstone, which used to be home to army sent for protection of the park. It was protecting it not only from poachers but also from train lobby which wanted to build a touristic line across the park. Army finally handed the control over Yellowstone to NPS created especially for this purpose, but many military elements survived until today, including uniforms and hats.

Comparing to terraces, fort is kind of boring. Terraces are amazing. They are so white that it just drills into your eyeballs, with springs so blue that you almost can't resist their inviting spell. In some places springs have dried out in other orange algeas beds form fantastic patterns almost as they were created by some some crazy artist. Well, why the hell Nature has to be always sane...?

We could go on and on about thermal features, but words can't express how amazed we were by Yellowstone. It could not be spoiled by anything, even by the fact that one of the rangers was talking about that it's such a wild place that there is no internet access at all, while just next door, in an ugly hotel there was WiFi for only 5 USD per hour.

We had to skip many things. We didn't see any wildlife, except for some bisons causing traffic jam. Due to limited time we skipped most of waterfalls, the only ones we saw were the Upper and Lower Falls in Yellowstone River valley, which makes a beautiful gorge crossing central part of the park. It's worth seeing, views are amazing, breathtaking even for us and we've seen quite a few gorges, canyons and falls lately.

With Yellowstone we are now, let's say, professionally involved, as Maciek got a Junior Ranger badge. Yellowstone, by the way, is so huge, that while in other parks on our way he got two badges and each took him (and us of course) just a few hours to get (you have to solve a few tasks, draw something, describe a few places), in Yellowstone the booklet with tasks was not ready until our very last day there. Only bingo with things we saw took us 3 days to complete.

We would complain about the weather but for the last few months we checked the forecast regularly and we expected Yellowstone to be raining if not snowing, cold and windy, and it was the reason we didn't mail our winter coats back to Poland. Meanwhile it was not  bad at all, first day we run around in t-shirts, later it got a bit more chilly and we had a few showers but it wasn't cold or raining so bad that it would discourage us from getting out of car. Not bad, considering that most of Yellowstone is over 8000 feet above sea level.

With those minblowing thermal features, amazing views and the weather Yellowstone moved to the first place out of the most beautiful places we've seen in the US. We should've spent there not 4 but 14 days. Unfortunately, as usually, it was time for us to go. Last day we left a trailer on the parking for a few more hours to enjoy Yellowstone just a little bit more, and late in the afternoon we headed east.