![]() Take a moment to view them as they are quite pretty, especially the Opal Pool. ![]() That said, even on a cold day causing a lot of steam to rise from the spring, we were able to see some of the unusual colors the spring is known for.įrom there the crowds start to thin as many rush by the final two springs, the Turquoise Pool and the Opal Pool. NOTE that because you are so physically close to the spring, you won’t get those majestic, elevated views you see on postcards and in tour books those photos are taken from the overlook off the Fairy Falls Trail. The trail will then take you to the star of the Midway Geyser Basin, the Grand Prismatic Spring. The trail then takes you to and around Excelsior Geyser, which is an impressively large dormant geyser that is now classified as a hot spring. I recommend that you pause briefly here and watch the boiling water from the Excelsior Geyser pour into the river – the resulting plumes of steam are a pretty remarkable sight. The intricately terraced sinter cone is 150 feet in diameter with a 14x20 foot crater. Back Basin Trail is a 1.75-mile loop passing numerous hot springs and geysers. You’ll have to get quite lucky to see Steamboat at full strength, as the geyser can go 50 years between major eruptions. But it remained unnamed until the 1872 Hayden Survey. Norris Geyser Basin is home to Steamboat Geyser, the tallest geyser in the world, found on Back Basin Trail. It has the distinction of having the first written description recorded by the 1869 Folsom-Cook Expedition. The beginning of the trail is a pedestrian bridge that takes you over the Firehole River. Great Fountain Geyser is one of the grand geysers of Yellowstone. The trail (which is actually a boardwalk) is a fully accessible 0.8 mi/1.3 km lollipop loop with only a 75-foot elevation change, making it suitable for virtually all ages and fitness levels. ![]() There are also vault toilets located in the parking lot.Īt one end of the parking lot you will find the trailhead for the Midway Geyser Basin. NOTE that if you choose this option, there is a hiking trail next to the road that will take you to the parking lot and enable you to avoid walking in the road. My wife and I drove around the lot three times before finding an open spot, despite this being during the off-season many others gave up and decided to park along the road. When the parking area was constructed, they probably didn’t anticipate the crowds that Yellowstone now experiences. One of the first things to understand and anticipate is that you will very likely experience a traffic jam in the parking lot. Lower Geyser Basin is located north of the Upper and Midway Geyser Basins, between Madison Junction and Old Faithful Village on the Grand Loop Road. ![]() My wife and I visited here on a chilly day during the latter part of September 2022. Its popularity is due in no small part to the presence of the second most famous landmark in Yellowstone (next to Old Faithful), the Grand Prismatic Spring. The ice averages about three feet thick during the winter.Located in Yellowstone National Park about 6 mi/9.7 km north of Old Faithful and about 10.5 mi/16.9 km south of Madison Junction, the Midway Geyer Basin is relatively small but is probably the most-visited geyser basin the park. During the winter, the underwater thermal features are visible as melt holes in the icy surface of the lake. Several underwater geysers were discovered in the early 1990s and can be seen as slick spots or slight bulges in the summer. The hydrothermal features at West Thumb are found not only on the lake shore, but extend under the surface of the lake as well. This created the source of heat for the West Thumb Geyser Basin today. Ring fractures formed as the magma chamber bulged up under the surface of the earth and subsequently cracked, releasing the enclosed magma. It is interesting to note that West Thumb is a caldera within a caldera. The West Thumb is about the same size as another famous volcanic caldera, Crater Lake in Oregon, but much smaller than the great Yellowstone Caldera which formed 600,000 years ago. The resulting collapsed volcano later filled with water forming an extension of Yellowstone Lake. They don’t have boardwalks, and it is recommended you take an experienced guide if you go to either of. To get to either one, you need to hike 15-20 miles round trip. The West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake was formed by a large volcanic explosion that occurred approximately 150,000 years ago (125,000–200,000). I listed these together because they are in the lower part of the park, and they are very removed from the main roads. The heat source of the hydrothermal features in this location is thought to be relatively close to the surface-only 10,000 feet (3000 m) down! West Thumb Geyser Basin, including Potts Basin to the north, is the largest geyser basin on the shores of Yellowstone Lake. NPS/Diane Renkin Explore the West Thumb Geyser Basin Black Pool in the West Thumb Geyser Basin.
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