Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Last Day at Yellowstone

I’m writing this post on Tuesday, October 7.  I’ve had some problems getting connecting here in the wilderness of Montana.  That is not unexpected.  If you don’t see a post for a few days, stay with us.  We haven’t quit.

We left Yellowstone Sunday, after 7 nights.  Linda wanted to go back to Old Faithful on Saturday because we didn’t see it all when we were there earlier in the week.  We watched geysers and bubbling mud pots and steaming colorful pools.  I don’t think you can get tired of all that. It took several hours to walk the upper and lower geyser basins because there is a lot to see and some miles involved.  And several geysers are predictable, like Old Faithful, so there is some waiting even if your timing is pretty good.  We did get to see Castle and Daisy geysers erupt.  Again, you just can’t get tired of that stuff.  Other geysers go off almost constantly but aren’t as high, still fun to watch  them put on their show.

Yellowstone is a super volcano.  As you drive and walk around, you are smack in the middle of an active volcano.  Its last eruption was thousands of years ago but you can’t be sure when the next one will be.  It just might come when you are there!

The pictures I’ve included are from our Saturday tour.  Notice some of the algae and bacteria mats.  These living things can only survive in narrow temperature and acidic ranges.  Different colors are different kinds of these simple lifeforms and represent different water temperatures and ph levels that the thermal features provide – wonders to behold for sure.

The last picture is the famous Morning Glory Pool.  Many of you recognized that without being given a clue.

Sunday, we drove to Big Hole Battlefield National Monument at Wisdom, Montana.  We’re staying at a little RV park in Wisdom for two nights.  I’ll have pictures from the battlefield next.




Beautiful Deep Blue Hot Pool at geyser basin near Old Faithful


Another hot pool


And one more


Cone Geyser


Bacteria Mat

This is algae or bacteria, maybe somebody knows.  It's growing in the hot water.


Morning Glory Pool

2 comments:

  1. Still enjoying your photos and your writings!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You realize that you only encourage me for more of it.

      Delete