9/21/2021 - Tuesday - Artists Paintpots, Norris Geyser Basin and Yellowstone Grand Canyon

September 26, 2021

Tuesday was an eventful day. The first picture is not related to anything else - a telephone pole. It struck me as unexpected to see a real telephone pole - because everywhere we looked, we saw forests of lodgepole pines - the most common tree used to make telephone poles! Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pictures of the lodgepole pine forests! We have seen similar forests in the northern part of Michigan's lower peninsula, where the climate is probably similar.

The next stop was the area called "Artists Paintpots". It is full of a variety of colorful pools, steamy geysers, and other interesting sights.

Blood Geyser is one of many places in the park where the colors are determined by the minerals in the water. Since there are copper mines nearby, it is no surprise that the blues and greens of copper oxides are found widely. There are also several places where iron oxides are prevalent, and this is one of them.

As we walked along the area, we saw some interesting things. The pictures below have captions showing why I found each of them unique:

Taken from a boardwalk looking down -
note the change from ferns, to moss, to geyser!

This looks like the palette which
might give the Artists Paintpot
its name

This picture, and the next one,
show much of the Artists Paintpots
area from a high lookout

Here are some action shots:

Our next stop was the Norris Geyser Basin. I looked in vain for the Norris Geyser in the area around the basin. Only after about an hour did I realize that this was a Geyser Basin named after Philetus W. Norris, the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park from 1877-1882.

Steamboat Geyser, on a good day, is the world's tallest geyser, with spouts over 300 feet. However, the nickname on the sign says it all - it erupts whenever it feels like it, which was not September 21, 2021!

We did see these smaller geysers:

Next, we came across Porkchop Geyser. It was a small hot spring, nothing special, that bubbled occasionally; and the boardwalk across the area went right past it. Until September 1989, when it decided to prove that geysers have a mind of their own! The signs are difficult to read - there were eight tourists, carefully staying on the boardwalk, admiring the scenery when Porkchop Geyser decided to explode. Fortunately, nobody was badly hurt - but the boardwalk was relocated as soon as the Park Service could do it! Porkchop Geyser was not erupting while we were there!

Monarch Geyser was a major spouter in the 1800s, but had quieted down by the early 1900s. Its activity increased briefly after the 1959 earthquake, but has now settled down. When we were there, there was a pool of about a foot of water. Pine cones from nearby trees had fallen into the pool. They looked very pretty sitting there - so here are the pictures:

Close-up of the pine cones
that fell into the pool around
Monarch Geyser.

The Porcelain Basin - so named because most of the terrain is white - is another picturesque area in the Norris Geyser Basin area. It's signature feature is Porcelain Springs. Here are some pictures and a video of this area:

On the way out, we finally learned something about the man after whom this area is named.

We stopped to eat lunch in a parking lot. We had company right outside the car. As we learned, the ravens in Yellowstone are accustomed to seeing people in their domains. They didn't beg for food, but they certainly didn't seem intimidated by either people or cars!

Our next stop was perhaps the most spectacular sight of the entire trip - and that's saying a lot! The Yellowstone River cuts a deep canyon through the area. It has two large waterfalls - we only saw the larger one, the Lower Falls, 308 feet high - which appear to have formed from erosion where there is a boundary between softer and harder rocks. The first four pictures were taken from a lookout area fairly close to the falls. We then hiked about a third of a mile horizantally, and about 500 feet vertically, to the lower lookout. From there you can look up at the falls and see the entire canyon in its splendor. The trek back up the 500 feet was the most difficult hike we had during the trip! The Yellowstone Grand Canyon is truly an amazing sight to behold!