Spouting Off

Sept. 23: Out early as usual in front of the Old Faithful Inn, which looked lovely in the dawn sunrise light…

…as did this beautifully restored touring car from the 1920s, once again giving visitors a road trip and tour in comfort.

These Brewers Blackbirds are the common small scavengers around the buildings, but they're surprisingly hard to photograph, as they never stop moving. Finally got this male and female pair sunning in a dead tree.

Today we rented bikes, adding another mode of transportation to our trip. The plan was to stay in the Old Faithful area and try to see as many erupting geysers as possible, while also visiting some thermal features we'd missed earlier. This is possible because four of the geysers other than Old Faithful are reasonably predictable, within an hour or two, and each morning at the Visitor Center they list the forecasted times of eruption. We didn't know how many we'd catch, but it was a fun goal.

It was another cool, breezy, sunny, glorious day, and our first stop was Grand Geyser, predicted to erupt between 8:15-10:15. We got there around 9 AM, and the geyser was beginning to show signs of activity.

We sat on the benches along with lots of other tourists for about ten minutes…

…and off it went in massive, explosive cascades of steam and water about 100 feet high. These geysers up close are a lot like the kind of fireworks that sit on the ground and send up waves of sparkly fire, only with water and not as loud, though there is a pretty loud low rumble and higher pitched water-spraying sound.

Here's a close-up. The eruption went on for ten minutes, and everyone enjoyed it.

Next we biked to Morning Glory Pool, one we'd missed earlier. It's a beauty, but has lost most of the blue color at the center it once had because of objects thrown into it by stupid and lawbreaking visitors.

Looking into the depths.

On a small bridge over the Firehole River we saw these three Common Mergansers fishing in the river, alternately sticking their heads into the clear water looking for food. We didn't see them catch any, though.

We walked a short way from there to Riverside Geyser, the next on our list, scheduled to erupt between 11:30 AM and 12:30 PM. We thought this would be a good place to stay and eat our box lunches ordered the night before (we learned from our mistake!) It was a great way to spend a relaxing 40 minutes beside the river…

…and the geyser erupted around 12:10 and continued with an impressive show for twenty minutes, spraying tons of water into the river!

We next walked a bit further to Daisy Geyser, next on the list. A few minutes after we got there, it obligingly erupted, giving a satisfying but fairly short display of about five minutes. This one shoots at an angle.

We thought that would be it, as the other predictable one, Castle, had no forecast today. We decided to bike a trail through the woods along the river, seeing a few new springs, geysers and pools, like this blue one.

The trail came out at Biscuit Basin, where we'd driven the first day, so we visited those thermal features again. I didn't take many new pictures, but do like this close view of some of the microbial colors and structures.

We biked down the main road to Black Sand Basin and revisited those features, too. Some Bison were still there drawing crowds. Then we walked and rode over a hill back to the Old Faithful area. Ellen almost ran over this small Garter Snake, but it seemed unconcerned.

We were heading for home, very tired and sore, not being used to biking, and the hotel was invitingly in sight when we got to Castle Geyser, and realized there was quite a crowd there. The sighting sign now said it was predicted to erupt between 3:20 and 5:20, and it was then 4 PM.

We couldn't resist the temptation, and parked our bikes, took off our backpacks, and waited for the eruption. It was a pretty long wait.

Finally at 4:46 Castle began erupting, and we couldn't believe the size and length of the show. This is an ancient geyser, but it still has lots of power, sending tons of water into the air to great heights, and it went on and on!

To cap the show, a rainbow began to form in the mist around the base of the eruption to the delight of the crowd. After half an hour the water sprays lessened, and the geyser entered its steam phase, still powerful and impressive. We had to get the bikes back, so we don't know how long the entire eruption lasted, but the Geyser Gazer on duty there called it a "major eruption."

To end our day we caught an eruption by Old Faithful, making it a five geyser day, plus one we saw erupt from a distance, we're not sure which. Pretty amazing and great fun. We're tired but happy, and tomorrow will move on to more northern parts of Yellowstone.