adventures of an unfinished traveler: geysers galore!

In the first week of our travels, we spent a few days at Yellowstone National Park. On our second day of touring Yellowstone National Park we began at the mudpots, but I will save that adventure for another post. This one is all about the geyser basins located on the west side of the park. Starting our afternoon with the infamous "Old Faithful," we watched its eruption then wandered along the boardwalks admiring the bubbling waters, plugging our noses at the sulfur leeching from the earth and eagerly anticipating the eruption of dozens of different geysers. The weather was gorgeous, sunny with big, fluffy clouds sporadically passing through, and although there were plenty of tourists about, the park didn't feel overcrowded.

Looking on a map of the geyser basin and seeing how many there are, I'm not going to recount all the names of each and every geyser but highlights were the Lion quartet, Giant Geyser, Castle Geyser, Sawmill Geyser and of course, Old Faithful. Intermixed with all the bursts of water scattered about were a number of blazing hot pools. Doublet, Liberty and Sapphire Pools were my favorites. The ultimate spring however was the Grand Prismatic Spring and the large pool right nearby that I don't remember the name of. Another feature, non-thermal, of the area that was intriguing were all the rivers and streams flowing about. Especially when you could see all the burning hot water from the springs flow into the icy rivers. The juxtaposition of these two elements was really interesting.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. These are just a sampling of all there is to see...

Lower Basin: