Glacier, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone National Parks ~ September 13, 2018

Today's main interest was to visit the Midway and Lower Geyser Basins and Firehole Falls. One of the Midway Geyser Basin's prime attractions is Grand Prismatic Spring, a large, multi-colored pool. Unfortunately, steam created by the cold air blowing over the top of the hot pool, blocked the view of most of it.

Grand Prismatic Spring

Opal Pool and Turquoise Pool are smaller versions of Grand Prismatic Spring. Excelsior Geyser is also found in that same area.

Opal Pool

Turquoise Pool

Excelsior Geyser

After a short drive, we turned onto Firehole Lake Drive, which provided looks at Firehole Spring, White Dome Geyser, and Gray Bulger and Artesia Geysers.

Firehole Spring

White Dome Geyser

Gray Bulger Geyser (front) and Artesia Geyser (back)

Artesia Geyser

At the end of Firehole Lake Drive, we crossed the highway and walked the boardwalk route around the Lower Geyser Basin. Highlights there included the Celestine Pool, the Fountain Paint Pots, and Clepsydra Geyser.

Celestine Pool

The bubbling Fountain Paint Pots

Clepsydra Geyser

While driving north towards Firehole Falls, we turned onto Fountain Flat Drive and got to see a herd of bison.

Bison along Fountain Flat Drive

Farther north, we drove the one-way road to Firehole Falls.

Firehole Falls

Earlier, we found out that Grand Geyser and Castle Geyser, both very close to each other in the Upper Geyser Basin, were expected to erupt around the same time in the mid-afternoon. So, we headed back there and parked ourselves at Grand Geyser. From there, we could also see Castle Geyser. With no warning, Grand Geyser erupted, at times shooting over 100 feet high, accompanied by smaller Turban Geyser.

Grand Geyser

The smaller Turban Geyser (left) and Grand Geyser (right)

As soon as Grand Geyser died down, we walked over to Castle Geyser, which erupted soon afterwards.

Castle Geyser

From there, we walked back to "Old Faithful" and watched that show one more time.

"Old Faithful" putting on its show

On the way back to our room in Grant Village, I stopped to take this distant photo of Yellowstone Lake.

Yellowstone Lake

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