Think of Yellowstone as an “Acts of God Theme Park.” It’s the most apt description we could conjure. There is so much to see and do in this mammoth national park that we’ve decided to write several posts – one on the geothermal activity in the park and another on the incredible wildlife. In addition, we’re going to create a few “photos-only posts.”
A bit of background: Yellowstone is the first U.S. National Park, established in 1872 by President Ulysses S. Grant. Pull out your map – you’ll find it in the northwest corner of Wyoming (although margins of the park cross over into Montana and Idaho).
Of course, as soon as we arrived at our campground, the temperature plummeted and it snowed. We felt so sorry for the campers in tents but we stayed dry and warm. We stayed at both Grant and Madison campgrounds operated by Xanterra – if you visit, make reservations early as the campgrounds fill up (even in snowy and cold weather!). The sites were well wooded and – this was a first for us – on registration we had to sign an acknowledgement about bear activity, both black and grizzly. There are large metal food storage boxes for tenters to use and all sorts of signs about bear activity.
So, let’s start with the geothermal sights. Everyone knows about Old Faithful – it’s one of 10,000 geothermal volcanic vents in the park – it was great but not the most interesting by far. A park staff member told us it gets the most press because “you don’t have to walk far from the parking lot to get to it.”
We couldn’t get enough of the other sites – we laced up our hikers and walked the boardwalks, paths and overlooks to see steaming hot springs, mud pots belching blobs of liquid clay, geysers that erupted columns of superheated water, green, yellow and blue hot pools. And everywhere, streams of steam rising into the air.
The park is actually the location of a huge collapsed volcano caldera, the remains of the last major eruption 640,000 years ago. The huge crater marks the volcanic heart of the park. Oh yeah . . . It’s due to blow anytime and the eruption would wipe out most of the Northern hemisphere – isn’t that a cheery thought?
A few facts to wrap your mind around:
- Yellowstone contains more hydrothermal wonders than anyplace on Earth (10,000+).
- Half the world’s geysers are located here.
- Hot springs seep to the surface and form steaming and bubbling hot pools.
- Yellowstone is connected to the centre of the Earth – the source of heat for these geothermal features is molten rock.
Here’s our list of the best of the best – geothermal features that really captured our attention:
- Grand Geyser – about a 30-minute walk along the boardwalk trail from Old Faithful and worth every step. It blows about every 90 minutes (a guesstimate) and shoots seven storeys into the air. Bonus: it lasts quite a while, five minutes plus.
- Castle Geyser and Beehive Geyser – also on the Old Faithful boardwalk trail.
- Mud Volcano and the Dragon’s Mouth – luckily we arrived early (7am) and well before the tour bus crowds, so had most of the place to ourselves. Imagine what a dragon would look like with its mouth open, constantly belching steam and fumes from the bowels of the earth and you’ve got a pretty clear picture.
- Artists Paintpots with its fascinating grey clay mudpots. Imagine mud in the top of a double boiler and you’ve got the idea.
- Norris Geyser Basin and the Porcelain Basin boardwalk is filled with geysers, mudpots, thermopools, the latter is the home to extremophile and thermophile organisms that thrive on the high temperatures and acidity.
- It is impossible to find words that do justice to how expansive and otherworldly all this geothermal activity is. So, we’ve added an additional “photos-only” post. If you’ve been to Yellowstone, we’d love to hear your impressions. Please share your link to our posts and let us know about your own adventures to this part of the planet.
www.YellowstoneNationalParkLodges.com provides info and online reservations for lodging and campgrounds in Yellowstone