We headed out on the scooter today, leaving the RV parked up
at Madison. There are a few places on the Old Faithful to Madison section of
the Grand Loop road where RV’s and buses are not permitted to enter parking
areas. We did notice though that most RVs and buses completely ignored the
signs. So the car parks were VERY congested. Lucky the scooter parks almost
anywhere.
On the way out of the campground we saw a coyote crossing
the road, but the camera was in the backpack on Ros’ back and we didn’t have
time to get it out before he disappeared.
We started down near Old Faithful, where we left off
yesterday, at a place called Black Sand Basin. There were some stunning spring
pools. The colours in the pools relate to the temperature of the water and
which colour bacteria grow in the different temperatures. The hottest water grows
blue, then as the water gets cooler the colours change to white, then yellow,
then orange and finally brown. Some pools were just one or two colours, whereas
others were the whole spectrum. Really beautiful.
From Black Sands, we headed
over on a hiking trail towards Old Faithful. Most people seem to want to drive
from place to place rather than walking, so the trail was pretty quiet. We
stopped at Black Sand Pool, which was very colourful, and every few minutes
there was an audible thump and the ground shook, followed by an eruption of
bubbles in the pool. That was really interesting, so we waited there for a
while enjoying the phenomenon. It is caused by large gas bubbles underground
rupturing.
We headed on over to Riverside Geyser and arrived in time for its
eruption. We waited about half an hour, then it exploded in a great shower of
water and steam arching out over the river. The eruptions last about 20minutes,
so lots of time for photos and video. It was really spectacular, we thought
better than Old Faithful.
We visited Morning Glory Pool, which used to be a
stunning dark blue colour, but is fading to yellow because so many people have
chucked stones, coins and rubbish into it. The vents have clogged up and
reduced the water temperature. The signs all around the park are really clear
about not throwing things in and why, but the rangers fish out tonnes of
rubbish from the springs every year. People even write “Tom was here”in the coloured
bacterial mats in the streams. Morons!
Back to the scooter and on to Biscuit Basin, home to some of
the most stunning pools in the park. Black Opal Pool and Black Diamond Pool
were a stunning milky turquoise colour, and Sapphire Pool just nearby was the
deepest beautiful blue, with such clear water we could easily see the bottom.
Jewel Geyser added a bit of excitement as it erupted every 5-10 minutes. Wow.
We headed on a bit further to the Midway Geyser Basin and
the Excelsior Geyser. It is a massive pool of water that rarely erupts but
sends 4000 gallons of boiling water into the nearby river per minute. The pool
is a stunning array of colours, blue, white, yellow and orange. The outflow
water is also yellow and orange as the temperature changes. Grand Prismatic
Pool was the highlight of this area, a massive 62 feet across and stunning
yellow and orange colours at the edges. There was so much steam it was a bit
hard to see the middle, but we caught glimpses of bright blues.
On the way back to the campsite, we passed a river flat and
there were baby bison asleep flat on the ground next to their mums. So cute!
No comments:
Post a Comment