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Not the best lighting, but sometimes you have to take what you can get. |
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In many ways, this view of Lower Yellowstone Falls has superior lighting as compared to the one that I shot the previous day (http://www.gigapan.org/gigapans/30677/). In particular, and thanks to the tip from professional photographer Roger Devore (http://www.devorephoto.com), who was set up immediately to my right, there's a particular optical effect visible here that only happens for a brief window each day. Can you find it? |
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Now geolocated, this is a turnout that looks over Midway Geyser Basin (the famous Grand Prismatic Spring would be off to the right in the distance).
Very few people seemed to be stopping to look here, which is why we pulled over. Nice place to view run-off from the geysers entering the river (believe this is the Firehole River, but did not double-check that). |
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One of the geyser pools in Black Sand Geyser Basin: this is named for it's green color.
When the water is still, it's possible to see just how straight and deep the walls of the pool are. The color is due to different bacteria growing inside the pool - if the temperature goes down, the green-ish bacteria die, while the orange/red bacteria thrive - so the color of the pool may change. |
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This is the angle and the time of day to really see the rocks that give Yellowstone its name. The Yellowstone River has carved this dramatic canyon through a zone of hydrothermally altered and weakened post-caldera rhyolites. If you look closely, you can even find active hydrothermal vents (look for steam) down along the river. I think that if I were shooting this one again I'd have shot a little more on each side to square the image up a bit, but most of all I wanted to capture a view that illustrated the entire canyon from top to bottom. |
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Do you think there's a shallow magma chamber here? |
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This is one of the few springs that had good colors and was readily accessible on my visit. If you look closely there's even a spot where you can see yellow water spoting from the spring. |
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At the end of the geyser walk starting near Old Faithful is Morning Glory Pool - named for it's deep color, which has faded over time due to objects thrown in the pool by visitors (these can block the pathways the hot water takes to the pool).
The different colors are due to different micro-organisms (bacteria, archea?) that live in the various water temperatures. |
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Black Sand is a smaller geyser basin (relative to others in Yellowstone, that is) - the visitor boardwalk leads to two pools: this pan is taken from the boardwalk looking towards Sunset Pool.
The water draining from the pool is relatively warm, and is a great habitat for bacteria - the red and black colors are due to those organisms. The steam underneath the boardwalk is not from the pool, but from little fumaroles (steam vents) punching through to the surface - you can hear and see (yes, and smell) them from the boardwalk as you walk out to the pool. |
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Overview of the southeast side of the hot spring complex. |