Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park is run by the National Park Service
of America. It covers parts of the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. You
will find vacation lodging inside the park run by the NPS. The lodges inside the
park can be found at Mammoth Hot Springs, Old Faithful, Roosevelt Lodge Cabins,
Lake Lodge Cabins, Lake Yellowstone, Grant Village and Yellowstone Canyon.
Outside the park in towns like West Yellowstone you will find motel and hotel
accommodation. You must book accommodation in the park early.
The road system inside Yellowstone National Park is like a figure of 8. Spend a
day touring the geothermal features, such as Old Faithful, of the bottom circle
and another day touring the volcanic features of the upper circle. If you are
luck you may be able to view wildlife such as grizzly bears, black bears, moose,
elk, bison or buffalo. You may also want to try a hiking, camping, horseback
riding, white water river rafting, bird watching, boating, climbing, fly
fishing, kayaking, canoeing or join in a ranger-led nature walk
West Thumb Geyser Basin
If you are driving into the park from Jackson Hole and Grand Teton national park
the first major Geothermal feature you can visit is just past Grant Village.
Look out for the sign posts to West Thumb Geyser Basin. It is on the edge of the
Yellowstone Lake in the volcanic caldera. When you get there look around. You
are standing in the bottom of a giant volcanic crater. The hills you see are the
remains of the edge of volcanos. You will find Pacific cutthroat trout and lake
trout in the Yellowstone lake. There is a boadwalk that takes you around the
different volcanic thermal features at West Thumb. The Geyser basin exists
because of cracks in the earth, volcanic faulting, it which water seeps and gets
super hot. You will see hot springs, mud pots and fishing cones in the lake.
West Thumb does not have dramatic erupting geysers but does have a complete
variety of hot springs, pools, mud pots, fumaroles and lake shore geysers.
Earlier explorers used to cook fish and then whilst the fish was still on the
line put it into one of the lake shore geysers and cook the fish in the boiling
water. This is now banned but these geysers have been given the name of fishing
geyser.
Mud Pots, Mud Caldrons & Mud Geysers
I like mud pots and so do children as they make a great plop plop noise as the
sulphur gas escapes from the depths of the earth. They may not be as colourful
as the hot springs and pools but they are one of the geothermal volcanic
features that makes Yellowstone National Park so unique. Mud Caldrons are
slightly different as the boiling action you see is caused by carbon dioxide and
other gases rising from below and passing though the water in the pool. Mud
Geyser occur if the underground steam vents are of small girth. Pressure builds
up the mud explodes upwards in a column of muddy water, 7-10 ft in diameter, up
to 50 ft in the air and can cover trees.
Hot Springs & Geysers
Cold surface water sinks through the cracks in the Yellowstone volcanic caldera
basin for up to 10,000 where it comes into contact with the hot rocks of the
shallow magma chamber. The water becomes superheated and less dense than the
downward moving colder water. It therefore rises to the surface dissolving some
of the silica in the rhyolite rocks making a solution of silica within the
rising water water. Some of the silica is deposited as a mineral called
geyserite on the walls of the underground ‘plumbing system’ making a
pressure-tight seal creating a system of tubes that can withstand the great
pressure needed to produce an explosive geyser like Old Faithful. If the
underground ‘plumbing system’ has large tubes then the heat is released at a
slower speed and produces hot springs. Different colored bacteria microbes and
algae thriving at different temperatures cause the bright colours of the
volcanic geothermal hot springs like West Thumbs Paint Pots, morning Glory,
Grand Prismatic, Abyss, Emerald, and Sapphire. As the hot water spills out of
the hot springs it cools down and different bacteria find the place where the
temperature is just as they like it and then grow. The Vikings were the first to
record finding a geyser. That was on Iceland at a place called Geyser.
Fumarole Steam Vents
Fumaroles, or steam vents can be seen all over Yellowstone National Park. They
are hot springs with a lot of heat, but not much water. The water that is there
boils away before reaching the surface producing a loud hissing vent of steam
and gases.
Mammoth Hot Springs
The geothermal terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs in the north of Yellowstone
national Park, were formed by heat, water, and limestone. Minerals in the rock
are put into solution by the heated water that has gone down deep in the cracks
in the rock and then bubble up to the surface. One of the minerals called
Travertine is deposited as white rock. The cooling hot water allow
micro-organisms and living bacteria to grow and create beautiful shades of
oranges, pinks, yellows, greens, and browns. The Mammoth Hot springs terraces
are constantly changing. As the white rock formations grow, the water is forced
to flow in different directions. The constant changes in water and mineral
deposits create a living sculpture.
(Website
design by
Craig Moore, London, England)