The western side of Yellowstone offers an otherworldly experience of fumaroles (steam vents), hot springs, mudpots, and geysers . Here our wilderness walks are on boardwalks with brief excursions through hearty pines standing tall as they resist heat, steam, acidity, and constant sometimes violent change. Today we walk the volcano’s edge in northeast Norris Geyser Basin, the hottest and most acidic geyser basin in Yellowstone. Welcome to Porcelain Basin.
The best known site in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is the Lower Falls. Twice as tall as Niagara Falls, water drops 308 feet resulting in mist and froth at its base adding drama and beauty. During the autumn when water flow is at its lowest, about 5,000 gallons (19,000 liters) of water per SECOND drops to the canyon floor. During peak spring runoff 63,500 gallons (240,000 liters) per SECOND thunders over the brink.
The 20-mile long canyon is up to 1,200 feet deep and up to 4,000 feet wide. The beauty of the deep V-shaped canyon wall colors frame the gorgeous falls. The colors come from different levels of thermal intensity interacting with the rhyolite walls. You can see some of the thermal activity in the canyon walls during the day, but when the temperatures drop you’ll be amazing at all the thermals up and down the walls spewing their steam and losing their anonymity.
Never forget, it is amazing what finding a great spot to relax and beautiful light can do for your spirit. Enjoy . . .
I sit here in the center of Yellowstone National park with an amazing view south. I envy the Tetons, such youngsters and still growing and rising into the sky. I remember the extreme heat that gave me form but wonder about the caldera below and the timetable for its next explosion.
I ponder my brothers and sisters north in Specimen Ridge and east in the Absaroka Mountains. I’m in awe of my nieces and nephews, the columnar basalt standing tall along the Yellowstone River at Tower.
The explosion that planted me here is much older. The Absaroka volcanics spewed rock and ash, witnessed ash flows and lava flows through intense fury and extreme heat. Half my home, known as Mt. Washburn, fell into the caldera, but the remaining half stands tall reaching over 10,000 feet into the clouds and ever-changing sky.
I’ve seen 45 million years of heat, ice, compression, water, and erosion, but not near as much as my ancient ancestors, the 4,700 million year old granitic gneiss still gracing the landscapes and canyons to my north. Today my edges offer homes to colorful lichens and flowery plants. Humans, so very new on the landscape, rest on my flatter surfaces and comment on my makeup; the whites, pinks and freckled rocks all found within me. I’m a volcanic conglomerate–45 millions years old and still here to tell the tales of glaciers, volcanoes, and time.
Yellowstone Association, a non-profit partner of the National Park Service, is dedicated to educating us all on this amazing place called Yellowstone National Park. They offer seminars on a wide range of topics at their Yellowstone Institute, located at Lamar Buffalo Ranch. Not only do we get to learn surprising and interesting things about this vast land, but we get to stay at an historic location in the Serengeti of the West, Lamar Valley in the Northern Tier of Yellowstone. What an adventure today as our seminar group heads up into the mountains to see the only remaining wolf pens used for the 1995-96 reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone. Come, explore with us.
