Yellowstone - All the Geology Things!

Brace yourselves....you are about to be taken on a mini geology tour of Yellowstone National Park. I LOVED seeing all the animals, but that doesn't even compare to how excited I got about all the cool geothermal activity as well as the volcanic evidence. I am so lucky that I get to teach what I love!! 

I organized the pictures by the region that they were in. I wish I could post videos instead because in all of these situations, a picture just doesn't quite capture the movement, the sound, the smell of what is actually happening. Jason took a bunch of videos, but until we get home and get on our home internet, I can't get them from him. In the meantime, I hope that the pictures help show some of the amazing geology of Yellowstone National Park! 

MADISON AREA:

On our first day in the park, we decided that we were going to go in and just look around and get a feel for the park and what to expect. But, we immediately got consumed with how cool the park is! The first thing we did was take the Firehole Canyon Drive, which is a little road through, well, a canyon. It was beautiful and I am so glad we took the drive. We also got to see the Firehole Falls, which was our first waterfall of the trip. 

Firehole Falls

After that drive, we found another little off-shoot road called Fountain Flat Drive. As we were driving, I noticed that there was steam coming up from the river area. So we pulled over and I essentially ran over to this little pond where we discovered our very first geothermal area. If I had known what all we would see later in the trip, I may not have gotten quite so excited by this little pond, but as it was, I was pumped! 

Unnamed geothermal pond

LOWER GEYSER BASIN/FOUNTAIN PAINT POT AREA:

Next up we noticed that there was a LOT more steam off the side of the road. That is where we discovered that Fountain Paint Pot Area, where we got our first real taste of some of the crazy geothermal activity, like the fountain paint pot itself, which is a pit of bubbling mud. 

Fountain Paint Pot

Next to the bubbling mud, was this cool thing called the Red Spouter. It was created in the 1950's when there was an earthquake nearby that changed the area and opened up this vent. It pours out steam and makes a LOUD hissing noise.

Red Spouter

Continuing along the boardwalk, we came upon our first geyser, the Spasm Geyser. It was continually erupting while we were there!!  We were really lucky because there were hardly any people at the park so we were able to lazily walk around and take our time looking at things. 

Spasm Geyser

OLD FAITHFUL AREA:

We had gotten a late start on our first day, so it was later when we made it all the way down to Old Faithful.  And since we got there just as it finished erupting, we were able to easily get a parking spot. We lazily made it through the visitors center and saw that it would erupt again in about 45 minutes, so we decided to just go out and find a place to sit and wait.

The steam behind me is where Old Faithful erupts. 

Even before it erupts, it is continually putting up steam.

It started erupting exactly when they predicted it would (6:06 pm). 

The whole eruption lasted for about 4.5 minutes. It was really amazing to witness! 

Old Faithful at its highest point. 

On the last day I really wanted to go back to Old Faithful to see the other geysers that are in the area (there are a bunch!). We also spent more time in the visitors center. While we were in there they made an announcement that Beehive Geyser was predicted to erupt in the next 30 minutes. So we hoofed it up to it and got all set up to watch it. It was supposed to be bigger than Old Faithful and shaped differently, so we were excited. However, it never did erupt while we were in the area. This is the most it did while we waited for it. 

Beehive Geyser

The whole Old Faithful area is crazy with cool geysers. This one pumped all this steam out of it constantly while we were there. It is sorta eerie to have this happening all around you. I could totally imagine dinosaurs to be cruising around!

If you are interested, this link will take you to Old Faithful Geyser Live!, which is a live feed webcam on the whole old faithful area.

MUD VOLCANO/SULPHUR CAULDRON AREA:

On our second day we made a long drive around to Yellowstone Lake to have lunch at the hotel there, to check out the RV park inside Yellowstone (Icky! I do not recommend - VERY cramped), and then we continued on to Mud Volcano/Sulphur Cauldron area. 

Just like at Fountain Paint Pot and Old Faithful, there is a boardwalk that you follow to see all the different geothermal areas. This was called the churning cauldron. A picture doesn't really explain how cool this is. It seems like it is boiling, but it isn't hot enough. There are earthquakes under the ground that force different gases to bubble up through the hot water, which causes it to bubble and roil. 

Churning Cauldron

Further on was Black Dragon's Cauldron. 

The cauldron sprang up in 1948 completely unexpectedly spewing mud 10 to 20 feet in the air. It has since both moved 200 feet away from its original location and it has become more of a mere bubbling pool. It sorta reminded me of a muddy backyard pond with an aerator. 

Black Dragon's Cauldron

This is the Mud Volcano that the area is named for. It used to be a big volcano of mud, but has since collapsed and is now a bubbling cauldron of mud. 

Mud Volcano

Our favorite thing we saw in this area was this geothermal feature called Dragon's Mouth Spring. It rumbles and steams and it pushes out waves of water from the spring.

It was Jason's favorite thing that he saw in the whole park! 

Dragon's Mouth Spring

Across the street, there are more bubbling mud pits (called Sulphur Cauldron) and a pond that has a pH of 1 or 2!

Sulphur Cauldron

GRAND CANYON OF THE YELLOWSTONE AREA:

We continued on the road until we got to the canyon area. We first saw the Upper Falls, which are formed from lava flows and erosion.

Upper Falls

Then we hiked up to Artist Point to get a picture of Lower Falls. Both falls were beautiful and then canyon was amazing as well. We hiked literally right along the rim of the canyon the entire way. 

Our first view of Lower Falls on our hike

Cool panorama of our hike, the falls, and the canyon

View of Lower Falls from Artist's Point

MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS AREA:

The next day we ventured into the park we went north to the Mammoth Hot Springs. We, of course, had to take a picture of Liberty Cap. 

Liberty Cap - looking awfully, err, alert. 

Then, we took the path to Minerva's Terrace, which I believe was my favorite thing that I saw on our trip (it is SO hard to choose!). 

Minerva's Terrace

With all the steam and the crazy colors, it looks like it was sculpted for a movie - or a ride at Disneyland. I could totally imagine this being part of the set of the Matterhorn!

So amazing!

Minerva's Terrace

Another spectacular terrace formation was called the Mound Terrace (at least that is what the sign said. Things change so rapidly around there that it is hard to figure out online if that is indeed what it is called). It is the most beautiful colors of orange, yellow, grey, and white caused by the different types of minerals, rocks, and bacteria. 

Mound Terrace (I think)

There is even almost a fountain type thing at the top where the spring originated.

Mound Terrace

It would look totally at home at some high end resort as part of their landscaping or something. Amazing.

NORRIS GEYSER BASIN AREA:

This area, of all the areas we saw in Yellowstone, kept making me stop and look around and wonder if we somehow were taken back in time or onto a different planet. So completely alien. This area has some of the lowest pH in the entire park. Also, I took so many pictures that my camera battery died partway through our time here (lucky for you!), so I only have a few pictures.

This geyser is called steamboat geyser. It was constantly throwing up large amounts of water and steam. Apparently it erupts 2-3 times higher than Old Faithful and the eruption lasts for 24 hours. It doesn't erupt on a schedule, though. It can erupt anywhere from 4 days apart to 50 years.

Steamboat Geyser

Then we came upon just one of many beautiful steaming pools of water. They all get their colors from the different colonies of bacteria that thrive in the minerals and the heat of the pools. This particular pool is called the Cistern pool. I really like how you can tell how hot and volatile it is based on how the surrounding forest has all been killed recently. 

I love some of the names of the different geothermal areas. This one is called puff-n-stuff geyser. It regularly "puffed" out steam, so I guess the name does make sense! 

Puff'n Stuff Geyser

ARTISTS PAINT POT AREA:

The last place we went after the Norris Geyser Basin was Artists Paint Pot Area. It is a short hike, although a bit steep to get on top of this hill!  Once again there were a variety of different types of pools and bubbling pots to see. The area has a bunch of different colors because of the different minerals and bacteria present. It was a pretty cool way to end our day!  (And again, since my camera ran out of battery, I didn't take that many pictures).

Artist's Paint Pot Area

Between the animals, the geology, and the hiking, we had an amazing time in Yellowstone National Park. I cannot wait to go back and see even more! We only really saw 50% of the park (based on the roads -  obviously not by square miles because we didn't even come close to seeing the whole park).

My favorite picture of us from the trip - with Old Faithful erupting behind us on our last day in the park.

In my last Yellowstone blog post I will post about our campsite and other random stories that don't fit in here! Look for that post later today or tomorrow!