We drove into the south entrance of Yellowstone and stopped at the West Thumb Geyser Area on the shore of Yellowstone Lake. The West Thumb is a separate caldera within the Yellowstone Caldera and is the area where the most people have been killed and seriously injured by falling into hot pools. It is fascinating to see hot springs right next to a lake which is at a constant 42 degrees.
This is Fishing Cone. In the old days, fishermen would catch fish in the lake and supposedly turn around and cook them in the hot water of the cone.
The next morning we decided to drive the central loop inside Yellowstone. Unfortunately, it rained all day until about five in the evening when we returned to our campground. The only campground with full hookups in Yellowstone is at Fishing Bridge and crams 300 RV sites into a small area. It had nothing to redeem it other than power. We started at Old Faithful which we saw explode twice. While Joe and Vera dealt with various matters that needed internet and phone coverage, Bob and I walked the Upper Geyser Basin. One-quarter of all the world's geysers are visible from the lodges at Old Faithful.
The Ear Spring, so named because it looks sort-of like an ear.
While we were walking around the loop we came to Aurum Geyser, which supposedly erupts every 2 1/2 to 5 hours. Bob commented that it looked like it was getting ready to do something, and lo and behold, it erupts and sprayed water all over the boardwalk (see the photo below).
The Upper Geyser Basin from Old Faithful.
The Belgian Spring (so named, perhaps, because a Belgian fell into it).
We continued on to Midway Geyser Basin, the home of the Giant Prismatic Spring (340' across and the biggest spring in Yellowstone which pumps 4,000 gallons of hot water a minute into the Firehole River). By this time the rain was getting harder.
We finished at Norris Geyser Basin and the Emerald Pool (caused by the sulphur which acretes to the side and then turns the absorbed blue light green).
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