9/19/2021 Yellowstone - Old Faithful (NOT) and nearby geysers

 The drive from Bozeman to Yellowstone took several hours.   Entry to the National Park was free, courtesy of a lifetime pass for old people (60+) and their immediate family that cost only $10 a few years ago; it's about $60 now but that's still less than a one-week pass for youngsters!  We stayed at the Old Faithful Inn, and on our way in, saw a huge crowd of people gathered around.   A nearby sign said that the next eruption was scheduled for 3:04 PM, +/- 10 minutes.  We had arrived about 2:45, so we hung around in the cold rain (I was still wearing sandals from the long drive).  3:04 came and went, then 3:14, and finally 3:25, and my feet were freezing.   We walked around to the front of the hotel, and heard the crowd yelling at about 3:30 when it finally went off.   Here are some pictures of  us, what we saw, and an idea of the size of the crowd:            

Lots of steam - no water






    








After checking into our hotel room, we took a long walk around part of the Upper Geyser Basin.  It is an amazing sight to see steam coming out of the ground in so many places.   Many of these are only steam vents; others are hot springs which bubble water out of the ground but not into the air; some are geysers which may be partly predictable; some are geysers which erupt when they feel like it - maybe today, maybe next year; and some spout water continuously.  The two main types are fountain geysers, which erupt from a pool of water; and cone geysers, which shoot out in a jet from a cone formation.

Anemone Geyser is a group of several fountain geysers which take turns erupting and draining.  It can be amazing seeing a pool no more than a few yards in diameter fill with water, erupt, stop, and then drain within only a few minutes.  





The pool, only a short time after erupting




Not all geysers are big.  This next little guy didn't seem to have a name, but bubbled away bravely for us with a spout of only a few inches:



For our friends who hike at South Chagrin and have crossed Sulphur Springs many times - here is its cousin at Yellowstone - not far from Old Faithful:



Sawmill Geyser put on a nice show for us also:




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