Geysers Galore!!!

This weekend marks the opening of Firehole Lake Drive and Fountain Flats Area. They have been closed because the area is considered a Bear Management Area. One of my favorite geysers seen to date is in this area, Great Fountain Geyser! It is a fountain type geyser as the name states. There are two types of geysers, cone and fountain.

 

From www.nps.gov/yell webiste

There are geysers all over the world. Many are still active but other have been wiped out because of geothermal energy research or natural disasters. The second largest geyser field on Earth, the Valley of Geysers on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia was partially buried under a mudslide on June 7, 2003 in an unfortunate event. It was captured on video by film makers of the series Wild Russia.

This landslide covered most of the valley.

 

Luckily there are geyser fields that are still intact like here in Yellowstone. 



From http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/geysers/geysmapw.html

Click on this link to see where the geysers are in more detail.



I have been fortunate to see many great geysers in eruption. These include many eruptions of Riverside and Lone Star, a few Beehives, Castle, Daisy and Grand. I was with my parents their first time to the park and we caught Beehive and Grand! Super great intro for them. The first time my girlfriend came with me we caught Beehive then Great Fountain. I caught a bit of Fan & Mortar and Giantess. Not to mention the countless Old Faithful eruptions. I still have a yearning for Giant and Steamboat eruptions, fingers crossed.

There are more geysers in Yellowstone than all other geyser fields on the planet making this a very special place unlike any other.

So if you in Yellowstone visiting or live in the local area take some time to move past Old Faithful and make some memories you will never forget. Explore the other geyser basins in the park and make sure to stay on the boardwalks because you never know what is lurking just below the surface...stay safe my friends!

 

 

The only thing left to check out are the space geysers such as the ones on Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons!!!

 

http://www.space.com/22181-saturn-moon-enceladus-water-geysers.html

What about the drones?

With the roads just opening in Yellowstone I thought it would be a good idea to bring up some interesting news from last year. There was an interesting  Dutch citizen Theodorus Van Vliet crashed a drone into Grand Prismatic Spring and was fined over $3000 by a federal judge in the park. Yes I said federal, Yellowstone National Park is federal property  The iconic Grand Prismatic Spring is located at the Midway Geyser Basin which is in Yellowstone National Park, home to over 10,000 thermal features. The types of themal features include hot springs, mud pots, fumaroles or steam vents and of course the most famous of all, geysers.

 

My photo of Grand Prismatic Spring.

I understand why someone would want to fly a drone over this hot spring to get photos or video, it's amazing! The colors are stunning with each layer representing a different heat signature and type of heat loving micro-organism or themophile. These are an example of extremophiles, organisms that can live in very hot or cold environments, this being hot of course. This is where the problem lies. Grand Prismatic is 250 x 300 feet wide and up to 160 feet deep. The drone that dropped in was believed to be at 111 feet. From my perspective how could you get if out without disturbing the bacterial mats and the hot spring itself? You can't. If you took a hovercraft or helicopter over it would push too much air around and surely destroy too much. It you took some sort of boat the same would happen but with different damage. 

Click the link below for the official news release:
http://www.nps.gov/news/release.htm?id=1601

 A copy of the sign that was posted after this incident.

After this incident National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis signed a law into effect banning the operation of all unmanned aircraft on National Park Service Property on June 20, 2014. What happened next? A German tourist Andreas Meissner crashed another drone, this time into Yellowstone Lake on July 18th, 2014. A diver recovered the drone 10 days later.  He was ordered to pay $1600 in fines and restitution.

Although drones are becoming more and more popular with the advances in technology there are things that people must understand. Yellowstone National Park is one of the most heavily vistited and wild places in the lower 48 states. Drones can disturb wildlife in ways that would be new and harmful. Would you like to be watching a grizzly mother with cubs and see a drone flying over them? How about the incident above, being in a geyser basin, taking in the sounds smells and hearing a buzzing over your head? I sure wouldn't like that. No matter what it's a law now and hopefully there won't be any future headlines of this subject matter. So if you bring your drone to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem be sure to fly it outside of any parks. Happy droning!


Just after posting this yesterdsay this article popped up in the Billings Gazette.
http://billingsgazette.com/news/government-and-politics/drone-businesses-pop-up-in-montana/article_64e63a69-a592-5150-ba67-71bc59ffdb71.html

 



Yellowstone National Park Road Openings

On April 17th 2015 the first set of roads opened in the Yellowstone National Park (YNP) 

We drove down on the 18th and had a grand old time. To begin I'll give you a synopsis of when the rest open.

 

The road openings are as follows:

(Sourced from the Yellowstone National Park Sping Newspaper)

Open year round:

 Mammoth to Cooke City

 

April 17th:

Mammoth to Old Faithful

Madison to West Entrance

Norris to Canyon

 

May 1:

Canyon Junction to Lake

Lake to East Entrance (Sylvan Pass)

 

May 8th:

Lake to South Entrance

Tower Junction to Tower Falls

 

May 22nd:

Tower Falls to Canyon Junction (Dunraven Pass)

Beartooth Highway

 

June 11th:

Old Faithful to Grant Village (Craig Pass)

Now that we have that taken care of lets get to the fun part. We took a drive on the 18th of April with our ultimate destination Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin which is only accessible during  the Winter months via snowmobile guides and concessionaire rides which are not in my budget ($95 each way from Mammoth per person with only a one hour layover which equals not enough time to check out the geysers). We were very happy to get down in the early part of the year when there are less tourists but plenty of large mammals.

 

Bison jam in the road construction area betwen Mammoth and Norris

 

After getting through this little bison jam we decided to skip Norris due to time restrictions and our need to see the majors go off. But we did decide to take the trip up to Canyon Village to check out this masterpiece of nature. We started with the South Rim Drive being that its an in and back and the fact that the North Rim Drive loops back to the village. It was amazing as usual! We got come great views of the canyon from both sides but we got some wildlife on the north side.

The Upper Falls of The Yellowstone River from the South Rim



The Lower Falls of The Yellstone River from Artist's Point

On the north side of the canyon we got to watch the Ospreys dive into the canyon in search of fish in its depths. Osprey always catch fish in their talons with their heads facing foreward like an attack from behind and they always ear fresh fish, never dead. 

Osprey nest in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River from Lookout Point on the north rim.

Further down the road we made it to Inspiration Point which is located just past the Glacial Boulder a favorite with rock climbers. You get a partial view of the Lower Falls but I was lucky enough to see this wonderful coyote. I'm wondering if he was interested in our dog Delilah a nine year old German Shepard... she's fixed so... I was actually the only one lucky enough to see him. Maybe coyote is my spirit animal.

Coyote near Inspiration Point on the north rim.

 

After these encounters we headed back to Norris and down the road to Old Faithful. On the way we passed many thermal areas in the distance and some not to far away from the road. Yellowstone is home to more thermal features than anywhere else on the planet including over 300 geysers which we were on the hunt for. Luckily we headed past them all and made it to Old Faithful when we did we caught the namesake geyser eruption within 20 minutes, Delilah got to see it too (not from the boardwalk but from afar. Always keep your pets on leash in Yellowstone, don't take then on trails, it's illeagal, they can only be 100 feet off the road, and please pick up their droppings). We checked the predictions in the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center and they were great. Riverside, Daisy and Castle set basically an hour apart, with Grand off a couple more hours.

 

Two american icons, the bison and Old Faithful Inn.

 

We took the tar path down to Riverside to catch it and this is what we saw. The only thing that we wish we had done is brought our bikes.  

Grotto Geyser is always fun when in eruption which can last over 24 hours.

On the way to Riverside we saw a great performance by Spa Geyser, one that is not as predictable as others, a treat.



Riverside is always an amazing performer and on a sunny day you usually get some rainbow effect.
 

 



Most people that do go further on the boardwalks usually make it to Morning Glory Pool.

 

At one time the color of Morning Glory was much more magnificant but due to people throwing items in as if it were a wishing well the color has changed dramatically though it is still beautiful.

 There was a sign that said there was bear activity past Morning Glory. Always make noise and carry bear spray in the backcountry of Yellowstone. If you purchase bear spray and are finished with it you can donate it to any entrance station or backcountry office in the park. Hiking past this point there are a few geysers and hot springs including Artemisia which is very beautiful. This path will eventually lead you to Biscuit Basin.

 

Artemisia Geyser is a beauty with amazing geyserite formations surrounding its pool.

We called this one the Iron Heart.

Next on the agenda was Daisy Geyser which is one of the more predictable geysers. It was really nice. I had only seen Daisy twice before so it was pretty neat, nevermind all geysers are really neat.

Daisy Geyser is pretty cool.

These are some pretty cool thermophiles, heat loving organisms that live in the runoff channels of Daisy Geyser.


After Daisy put on a show for us we headed back to the boardwalk to get a glipse of the pools along the boardwalk from Grotto to Castle Geyser. We are always wishful that the Giant will give us a show but it has not done so for anyone since 2010. It's still pretty.

Giant Geyser cone.

 We did however catch some of the fun little geysers between Grand and Castle. Including Spasmodic and Penta along with some more interesting thermophiles.

Penta,a small but amazing geyser.

Spasmodic is super sweet with its many vents and constant play.

 

Some more interesting thermophiles, with ephyrid flies that live on the thermal mats.

As the day was coming to an end for us we made our way to Castle Geyser. The sun was going down and it was getting ever so chilly by the minute we waited for over an hour and were about to give up and we (the lady friend and I) and one other gentleman were the only people that lasted, got a private show, totally worth the wait!!! A Castle major!

 

Castle Geyser is one that is predictable to a point but can be finicky.

 

We wanted to stay for Grand but it was getting cold out and the sun was going down. So we decided to hit the road for the long ride home. On the way back we got stopped in another bison jam which could have lasted longer but my superior hearding skills paid off and we got off easy. Thanks for reading and until next time. Sleep tight, be safe and always be bear aware, they're just waking up!