6/3/14

We didn't do much touring this week but a herd of bison with their babies came through camp yesterday and took a nap in the meadow by the rivers. I got there a little before nap time ended and got a few photos.

 

 

Earlier in the day Penny saw a hawk flying over the campground.

 

We also had an earthquake in the wee hours of the morning Tuesday. There are literally thousands of earthquakes each year in Yellowstone but 99% are so weak that no one feels them. This one was strong enough to rock the trailer for five or ten seconds. Around noon we had a thunderstorm with about an hour of rain.

We went for a drive to the Old Faithful Grill in the afternoon, since neither of us wanted to cook dinner. We didn't have our regular camera with us but we used our phone camera to get a picture of a swan sitting on the bank of the Firehole River, just upstream of Firehole Falls.

 

6/4/14

We decided to drive the side roads between the campground and Old Faithful todaythis morning. Partly to see if we could find the swan again and also to see the sights available on the back loops, since they had been closed until Memorial Day.

The Firehole Canyon drive takes you close to the Firehole River, between Madison Campground and the Firehole Falls. It's a beautiful area with interesting geological features.

 

 

 

We did find the swan, pretty close to where we saw her yesterday. Today, with the better camera, we were able to get better photos. She was also cooperative and spread her wings for us, just as we were driving by. There was no place to pull off the road, so we weren't able to stop.

 

 We also took the loop to Firehole Lake. There are a number of thermal features along the loop drive, from hot springs to geysers.

 

We just missed the eruption of Fountain Geyser. We found out from the ranger that was there that it erupts every 10 to 14 hours, so we decided to come back and wait for the next eruption this evening.

This is White Dome Geyser erupting in the background, while we were waiting for Fountain Geyser to erupt.

Fountain Geyser fills its cauldron between eruptions, then bubbles and steams for quite a while before it actually erupts.

 

 When it is ready to erupt it first puts out a 1 or 2 meter high blast.

Then it bubbles and steams for about five more minutes, until it finally erupts. The eruptions can last for a few minutes to an hour and a half.

  

 

When it's finally done erupting, its cauldron is virtually empty and it begins the cycle again.

Below is Pink Cone Geyser erupting, another geyser in the same area.