Mary Angelini Photography: DAY 3 – Old Faithful & Midway Geyser Basin

After missing the sun rise the day before, I made the command decision that we were going to make it for Old Faithful. Considering it was a lot closer to us, it wasn’t that hard to manage. The only bummer was that it was a bit drizzly in the morning so when we got there is was somewhat cold and wet. Still, it was pretty sweet to witness! We did stop along the way to capture some really pretty sights of steam and sunrise, but still managed to arrive at Old Faithful in time.

While we were waiting to see it erupt, we saw some Buffalo cows and their calves in the parking area. It was kind of an odd yet expected sight. People were strangely cavalier about it wandering among the one ton beasts and their babies (which were adorable!). We grabbed some paper towels from the rest room and, after hitting the souvenir shop, staked out our benches on the east side of the geyser. We only had to wait about 45 minutes before it went off. It started as a small upwelling, spilling over the top to a gushing blow hole the likes of which I have never seen! It was really impressive. I think it shot up at least 150 feet and lasted a few minutes. It was pretty cloudy but the sun was coming out so my shots came out fairy well given the conditions were not ideal.

After running back to the car to get our ponchos, we ventured off on the boardwalks to explore the other pools and geysers in the area. There was a huge concentration of them and the terrain was a lot flatter which made the walk really pleasant. It was drizzling when we left, but soon the clouds parted and the sun shone and it was quite a glorious sight in the valley.

The ultimate goal of this walk was to end up at Morning Glory Pool, one of the more colorful pools in the area, but by no means the largest (that we’ll save for later). We saw many geothermal features of every variety and some really pretty flowers and just spectacular scenery in general. We also saw this guy standing on a bench who at first glance looked exactly like dad – in fact I was stupefied for a moment thinking to myself, “Whoa, what’s dad doing here?!?!” It literally stopped me in my tracks (see the picture below, you’ll see what I mean). Dad, you appear to have a twin that was at Yellowstone the same time as we were! On the way back we got to see Old Faithful erupt again.

When we got back from our walk we opted to have lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge cafeteria. It was a total fuster-cluck in there but the food was pretty good. After we ate we chilled out on the porch in rocking chairs for a while and just took it all in. We watched Old Faithful erupt a third time, which was cool.

After this we went over to the Midway Geyser Basin. By this point in the day, the clouds had passed and were replaced by a really strong cool wind. It made it a little hard to see the depth of the pools and springs, but the steam rising off of them was really awesome. The main one we saw was Grand Prismatic Spring. This is I believe the larges of all of them in Yellowstone and was, for my money, the most impressive. As we were standing on the periphery the steam was rising up then blowing with the wind. However, as it rose and hung low to the water the way the light was reflecting through it made it pick up the colors of the pool causing them to be the colors of the rainbow. It was really cool!

The thing about Grand Prismatic is that it is so damn big you can’t possibly capture it all in one shot while standing on the boardwalk. We happened to notice a small hill across the back side of the spring where a few people intermittently gathered. Knowing how big this was, it seemed like that would be an ideal spot to get a much better view. We went back to the car and drove over to this really crowded parking lot then followed the path to where it cut into what now appeared to be a small mountain as opposed to a hill. At first I was trepidatious about climbing this thing, but my determination for the perfect shot left me no alternative and up the mountain we climbed. It was totally worth the effort and fear! The view of the spring from up there was AMAZING!!! The colors were incredible and so was the view. You can’t really appreciate its size until you go up there for a birdseye view. In the pictures you can see the people on the tiny little boardwalk and get an idea of the scale. Anyone who doesn’t go here is really missing out on the bigger

This was sunrise in the Old Faithful area.

This is sunrise from the Great Fountain Geyser area where we were beforew going to Old Faithful.

More sunrise at Great Fountain Geyser area.

This was take from a turn out area just before the turn to get to the Great Fountain Geyser area.

Leah, this one is for you...it is called "Tardy" geyser! LOL You know I had to get a picture of that!

This was a little swath of red grass among the wild flowers and green grass as we were leaving the hike up the mountain to get an overview of Grand Prismatic.

This was a really pretty red flower of some kind I saw all by itself up the side of this steep hill I hiked up a short ways to get a picuture...glad it turned out!

Queen Anne's Lace...these are EVERYWHERE!

Some beautifully colored bacteria and stuff near the run off from a spring.

This is the incredible blue seen as the steam occasionally parted in fleeting moments over the Excelsior Geyser.

The beginnings of terraces in the runoff from one of the springs.

This might be beauty pool, but i can't recall (see, I should take much better notes).

This is Grotto Geyser.

Chromatic Pool.

Can't recall which pool this is.

Run-off springs into the woods.

I think this might be Grand Geyser.

I don't remember this one but I really loved the color and the way the calcium and mineral chunks in the water were smoothed to these rock-like stones.

Alien landscape or bacteria?

Such amazing shapes and formations.

I think this one was Spasmodic Geyser and it was every bit like its name!

John said he hadn't seen any orange flowers so of course I had to prove him wrong!

Old Faithful in all its glory.

Nice contrast against the stormy looking clouds!

Old Faithful winding down.

...and done (for now).

Morning mist in the valley.

Mornign mist and red grasses.

More bacteria...can you tell I had a small obsession?

This was the run-off and bacteria coming from the back side of Great Fountain Geyser.

This was mist rising off the Firehole River as we were entering the park to start our day.

This is a panned out shot of the same thing. This picture does not do justice to the serene beauty of this place in the morning.

Morning Glory Pool. Not as big as I imagined it would be, but still impressive for its clarity and color.

Morning Glory

really deep

This was a chipmunk that was munching on a Bing cherry someone gave it. It didn't seem to mind the 15 or so people standing fairly close to it and when I went in for a closer shot it just kept at that cherry oblivious to it all!

This was an awesome shiny green bee on this pretty wild rose along the path to Morning Glory Pool.

This is the Firehole River.

Ok, this is the dude that totally looked like dad! Am I wrong?

Bumble Bee on a Thistle (in case you couldn't figure that out yourselves)

A small blue Morning Glory-like flower.

Belgian Pool - you know I had to get a picture.

Belgian Pool...really not sure how it got the name.

This is Grand Prismatic from the boardwalk right next to it. It is so big you can't possibly fit it all into the picure. Note the glow in the steam and the buffalo tracks in the run-off.

About midway in the upper third of this picture is a lower hill that comes up in front of the larger mountain. This is the "little hill" that looked so easy to climb to get a better view of Grand Prismatic.