Norris Geyser Basin

After leaving Mammoth Hot Springs,

we saw more elk on a hill down below us

 

and the top of Mammoth Hot Springs with Electric Peak Mountain in the background.

 

As we traveled down the western side of the upper loop, we climbed in elevation fairly quickly and then leveled off with mountains in the background.

 

The Gardiner River starts on the west side of this road and then continues down toward the town of Gardiner on the east side.

 

As we turned off to the east to see Sheepeater Cliff, we saw this buck.

Sheepeater Cliff has some of those same columnar formations like what we saw at Devils Tower.  As you will see in later posts, there were several places inside and outside the park where we saw these columnar formations.

We saw this buffalo

 

along Gardiner River.

They are SO BIG!

 

The trees throughout most of the park were very young...

 

...because so many of the trees had been destroyed in a massive forest fire over 700,000+ acres of the park in 1988.

 

We next came to Roaring Mountain where we saw our first fumaroles.

 

Fumaroles are narrow vents through which steam rushes upward.  We could hear the steam hissing but it wasn't loud enough to pick up on the below movie.  The sound you hear are cars going by.

 

Next, we came to Nymph Lake...

 

...that had this small hot springs near it.  I guess this was nature's hot tub for its nearby pool.

 

We then arrived at Norris Geyser basin.

What was written on this sign to the entrance of the basin describes it best:

                "You are close to a world of heat and gases where microorganisms live in such massive numbers they add color to the landscape.  This strange, beautiful place is on the edge of a giant volcano -- the Yellowstone Volcano -- one of the largest on Earth."

We were walking right up on top of a volcano!  Now that's a scary thought!

 

And the geysers and hot springs were everywhere.  Below is the Steamboat Geyser has not erupted since 2005.  We waited around for a few minutes to see if Steamboat would have its BIG eruption but we just saw its continuous little eruptions:

When it erupts, it is the tallest of all the geysers in the parks at about 300 feet tall and can be heard from miles around (although it is silent in this movie).  Also, when it erupts, the Echinus Geyser below it empties completely and remains empty for a few days until the steam and hot springs build back up.

 

Near the Echinus Geyser was this small hot spring that looks and sounds like it is "frying" rather than boiling.

Below is a slideshow of all the geysers in Norris Geyser Basin.  Hope you enjoy the walk along with us!

 
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