Road Trip - Yellowstone

Artist's Paintpots

We impulsively pulled into the chaotic carpark at Artist's Paintpots. A boardwalk led us around a basin of pots, pools and streams; some muddy and others bright orange and blue.

Hydrogen sulphide gas gives the mudpots their characteristic rotten egg smell. Microrganisms present in the pools convert this gas into sulphuric acid which breaks down the rock into clay. The amount of water from recent rain fall or snow melt determines how goopy the mud is.

Along the sides of the path, the ground was crusted with something white (we later learned that this was silica), that had begun to petrify the trees. The trees absorb the silica from the ground water, which clogs up their little tree veins preventing other real nutrients getting through. The trees then have this characteristic 'bobby-sox' look! It was strange to come across these distinct areas of dead trees in amongst the otherwise densely forested hills. Alien, almost!

On the way back to the carpark we convinced two seperate families that the walk was worth it!

Old Faithful

The most popular geyser in the park (but not the biggest), is Old Faithful. The surrounding town functions around Old Faithful's hourly eruptions. We spotted seveal geyser clocks, counting down to the next eruption and noticed that all the shops and resturants emptied out as the eruption time drew nearer.

The crowds were impressive! Row and rows of people sat on benches waiting for the steaming hole to start shooting water. Old Faithful did not disappoint. The geyser shot water over 50 meters in the air, for almost 5 minutes.

Black Sand Basin: Emerald Pool, Sunset Lake

Last night, at the campground campfire, we attended a talk put on by a park ranger. We learnt about the prominent microbiology in the area. We were really impressed with these nightly presentations, the rangers were super knowledgable about the park and its ecology and geology. Learning about Yellowstone from them really enriched our experience.

Black Sand Basin gave us a great example of cyanobacteria! The colour of the bactaria in the springs tells you how hot the water is. #nerdalert

Algae in the springs' runoff indicates the waters temerature and acidity.

Daisy Geyser

This trail, only 5 minutes up the road from Old Faithful was deserted! Sean and I were continually suprised at how few people their were, as soon as you stepped off the main road.

We didn't see Daisy erupt, but we did see an impressive spring! Punch Bowl Spring reminded me of a hot tub.

Midway Geyser Basin

Excelsior Geyser is today a blue, steaming hot spring but in the 1800's it regularly erupted to heights of 90 meters!

A popular tourist spot, Grand Prismatic Spring is the 3rd largest geothermal hot spring in the world (NZ's Frying Pan Lake is number 1!).

Large rusty orange coloured bactaria mats and mineral terraces surround the spring adding to its impressiveness!

Sean and I were intrigued to see hoof prints (maybe bison?) in the mat surrounding the hot spring! The water is hot and acidic, afterall - probably not very pleasant for grazing animals to walk around in.

Good one, Kyle.