Fuming

 We piled into the car for another day of adventuring, this time heading toward the ultimate destination of the Hayden Valley and the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. Along the way, there was plenty to be seen. Trumpeter swans glided along lakes of glass, and the earth transformed from an elk-filled wonderland to a mysterious, hazy land of steam. Plumes rose from the earth all around us for mile after mile. Today was a day to see Yellowstone’s many thermal features.

Our first stop was Roaring Mountain, an area where the steam rising from the earth was particularly concentrated. This area is a fumarole, otherwise known as a steam vent, which forcefully expels a small amount of heated water (as steam) along with other gases such as hydrogen sulfide and other sulfur gases. This water generally comes from melting snow, trickles into the fumarole’s underground plumbing system (a feature of all of these thermal features), and then exits under pressure through narrow vents (constriction points). This and other steamy features are best seen in the winter and on cold mornings, when the steam is most dramatic. Roaring Mountain now offers a gentle hiss, but it used to be much louder. During the 1800s, it could sometimes be heard four miles away at Obsidian Cliff. Over the years, changes to the plumbing system occur due to erosion by the water, deposits of silica, or – most dramatically – earthquakes. This can blow out the entire plumbing system, transforming a fumarole into a hot spring.

Next, we stopped at Beryl Spring, which is the hottest spring close to the road. Its temperature is just below boiling. Our guide, Brenda, told us that when the water is blue, the hot spring temperature is high, because it’s too hot for the thermophilic bacteria to grow. Beryl is a steamy one, bathing you in a faintly sulfuric mist. In the winter, the surrounding trees get a constant misting and are coated in ice crystals, creating “ghost trees”.

We continued on, admiring Gibbons Falls, which has a heated watering hole that gets up to 80 degrees dur to the thermal springs and is open for swimming during the summer. 

As we journeyed on, trailing the river, an osprey flew alongside the car, showing off its black wing underbars. When we reached open plains, we saw the other herd of Yellowstone bison, the central herd. Their grassy plains were already starting to dry out, revealing large patches of silica. This silica wears down the teeth of the grazing animals and can shorten their lifespan in areas where the silica content is highest.

Fountain Paint Pots

Red Spouter

Clepsydra

Jet Geyser

We continued to visit thermal features dotting the ghostly landscape, next visiting some geysers. We wandered past Fountain Geyser, which only erupts every 5-7 hours. Its partner, Clepsydra, with which it shares a water source, is a smaller geyser but has been erupting continuously since the 1950s. As we made our way out, we had a welcome surprise from Jet Geyser, which erupts more erratically. The trees within the silica plain were white around the bottom, creating a “bobby sock forest”. These trees are actually being petrified from the ground level up. You can see a marked difference in the appearance of these trees versus the surrounding forest. Bordering the geysers are paint pots, which are essentially bubbling mud pits. One of the largest ones is relatively new; there used to be a parking lot here before the thermal activity moved to this spot. When watching the muddiest spots, you see the most frequent bubbles in the middle but the largest “splooshes” at the edges.

Next up were some very pretty hot springs, including the famous Windows 7 screensaver: Grand Prismatic. This was one time that the cold weather worked against us, as the steam covered up some of the iridescence. The steam was so thick we had to take off our sunglasses and shuffle through areas of 2-foot visibility, waiting for the direction of the wind to change. People walking the other direction were writing out their hair from the wet, and the warm moisture turned freezing as soon as the hot mist dissipated. Several large pools lie in close proximity: Excelsior Geyser, Grand Prismatic, Opal Pool, and Turquoise Pool. Besides being beautiful, Grand Prismatic is Yellowstone’s largest hot spring, measuring 200 feet across. Its brilliant colors come from a combination of light scattering and thermophilic bacteria. Between the thermal features, a bacterial mat bears witness to the visiting wildlife, all of whom clear out before the two-legged tourists arrive each day. We spotted both wolf and bison tracks leading up to Grand Prismatic.

The steamy walk to the hot springs

Excelsior Geyser

Grand Prismatic

Buffalo and wolf prints

Opal Pool

Turquoise Pool

Last but not least, we stopped at the Yellowstone classic, Old Faithful. Erupting every 96 minutes (give or take 10 minutes), it spews water 100 feet in the air for a total of 4,000-8,000 gallons each time.

We managed to arrive 10 minutes before the eruption, then ducked into the Old Faithful Inn for lunch. This building looms six stories tall and is built from lodgepole pine trunks. A Crow’s Nest at the top rises 76.5 feet above the floor. During the early years of the Inn, they would host large parties where an orchestra would play from a room at the top of the Inn, spectators would watch from upper balconies, and guests wound dance on the lobby floor below. Unfortunately, the Crow’s Nest is now closed to visitors because the 1959 earthquake moved some of the structural supports.

We ended our day at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, a large, historic yellow building that was where all the fancy folks used to stay back in the day. Luckily, our hiking pants were sufficient attire. It has all the quirks of an old hotel – no wifi, cool lower floors and sweltering upper floors, and one inch of clearance between the toilet and the bathroom door. The best part was meeting the young staff members who had just arrived from all over the country for the summer season (the hotel is only open during the summers, as not enough tourists want to brave the -40F temperatures in the winter to justify staying open). Everyone we met was on their first season and so excited to live in this incredibly beautiful place the next few months.

Some other pictures from the day:

An otter we saw at a quick roadside stop

Spotted: Diving ducks and cutthroat trout. Cutthroat trout are a native species and a major food source for bears, so fishing has been banned near their spawning areas. In the same area, goldeneye ducks (which actually have bright red eyes) floated atop the water before rearing back and diving down, paddling with quick, frog leg-like strokes.

Spotted part 2: Two sisters trying to stay warm as it snowed on us