Norris Geyser Basin

Sun Rays through Norris © 2010 bo Mackison

We explored Norris Geyser Basin on an early October morning. We arrived before sunrise. The temperatures had dropped to nearly freezing overnight, so we were alone in our explorations. Perhaps everyone else thought warm rooms and hot food were a better choice than dark and spooky geyser basins. Personally, I was quite enthralled with this magical looking land–a setting that one might expect in a few of the scarier fairy tales.

Mineralized Forest © 2010 Bo Mackison

Standing water from geyser eruptions has turned this Lodgepole Pine forest into a rather ghostly, mineralized forest, especially when seen before dawn. The near freezing temperatures made the steam from the geysers all the more visible. Since there are over 180 thermal features in Norris, this place becomes a steamy place when the temperatures drop. Even daylight doesn’t help much.

Norris Geyser Basin at Sunrise © 2010 Bo Mackison

See? Sunrise doesn’t provide much light, but it does add some interesting reflections and light to the many geyser runoffs in the basin.

Back Basin © 2010 Bo Mackison

The Back Basin at Norris contains stands of trees that are in varying degrees of decay. It is park policy to leave the trees as they fall, unless they are an obstruction to traffic or a safety hazard. Lodgepole pines have a shallow root system, and so larger trees are easily toppled by strong winds or they absorb the minerals in the geyser runoff.

Fogged In Trees © 2010 Bo Mackison

More cold. More steam. More trees standing in cold air, but in steamy fog.

Crater Spring © 2010 Bo Mackison

Crater Spring is one of the few pools on the Back Basin loop. Norris is the most changeable and unpredictable of all of Yellowstone’s geyser basins. It is one of the hottest areas in the Yellowstone region. Geologists doing test drills have found water temperatures over 400˚ F at depths of 200 to 1000 feet. They also estimate that this geothermal area has been continuously active for over 150,000 years.

Steamboat Geyser © 2010 Bo Mackison

Back Basin is the location of Steamboat Geyser, Yellowstone National Park’s tallest, though unpredictable, geyser. Steamboat is most always steaming or spouting, but only minor eruptions of 40 to 60 feet have occurred in recent years. When the geyser was having major eruptions, water was forced upwards nearly 400 feet. Steamboat was at its peak performance in the 1960s, erupting more than 100 times in that decade. It has steadily declined since then, and there have only been a few major eruptions since 2000.

Back to Yellowstone – Paint Pots, Geysers and Fumaroles

So here we are back at the Fountain Paint Pot Basin in Yellowstone National Park after a brief foray into the Heartland. I don’t think I have ever taken as many photographs as I did at Yellowstone, but then I’ve never seen such a densely covered wonderland of steaming fumaroles, gurgling mud pools, and shooting geysers, all surrounded by autumn’s glorious color.  After we visited Yellowstone, we went to eight more National Parks and Monuments, including Zion and the Grand Canyon, so there are many more photographs of other wonders of nature coming soon to Seeded Earth.

I figure this is a good time, anyway, to show off the beauty in the National Parks in autumn, because autumn’s color in Wisconsin is taking it on the chin with today’s weather. By nightfall, much of our autumn color will be soggy and on the ground. So, here is more from Yellowstone and beyond.

Sliex Springs on the Fountain Paint Pot Loop in Yellowstone

Silex Spring © 2010 Bo Mackison

The Fountain Paint Pot Basin features several pools, a half dozen geysers, and the largest collection of “paint pots” in Yellowstone. A boardwalk makes observing these wonders not only convenient, but also safe. There are warning signs all over the park asking visitors not to leave the marked paths. Thermal areas are unstable and more than one person has suffered serious injuries when stepping on ground that collapses into a thermal feature.

Just by looking at the pools, it is hard to accurately judge their depths. Silex Spring is about 35 feet by 40 feet on the surface. The hot springs are so clear is some places, it seems as if they are only a few feet deep — misleading. Its deepest area is over 27 feet. The name “Silex” probably refers to the silica composition of the pool, though there are park historians that claim the pool was named after a gurgling coffee pot called the Silex.

Noisy Fumaroles © 2010 Bo Mackison

When the water table is high, geysers spout quite continuously in this bacteria laden pool. When less water is available, the pool is deep brown in color from a high bacteria count, and noisy fumaroles pop along the surface. A fumarole is a geyser that does not reach the surface of the earth, so it only emits hot steam and gases above ground.

Silica and clay form popping "paint pots" in Yellowstone National Park

Fountain Paint Pots © 2010 Bo Mackison

These fountain paint pots bubble on the surface. plop, plop, plop. See the recipe below which was provided on an information sign at the Paint Pots exhibit in Yellowstone.

Recipe for Mudpots © 2010 Bo Mackison