Yellowstone National Park is an active volcano, we found out after we had left that is about due for another eruption, but we’ll ignore that for now. As most active volcanoes do, below the caldera (the basin at the top of the mountain) is lots of hot magma. When the snow melts and rainwater seeps below the surface, it is heated and resurfaced in the form of hot springs, bubbling mud (2.5 Mb video) or steam. Depending upon the pressure below and the size of the exit point, the scene can be a calm hot spring, gurgling holes, or erupting geysers. In addition, different bacteria thrive in the 100-280 degrees Fahrenheit (38-140 Celcius) water causing rainbows of color with the temperature changes.

Our first day was great, if not freezing cold, but the steam was actually welcome and warmed me up a little. By the early evening it had started to snow and we decided camping was not for us this evening, so we got a cabin at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge (see following post for events at the cabin).

Old Faithful is a geyser that routinely erupts every 90 minutes or so, at a height of 120 feet (36 meters), for about 2-4 minutes. A spectacular site I’m sure when it’s not freezing cold with whiteout snow conditions! But we did manage to see it erupt 3 times, the first time was whiteout conditions, the second time (in ideal conditions with blue sky) I was unable to operate my automatic digital camera correctly and did not get video. The lucky third I was able to get video in semi-desirable conditions which you can watch here: Old Faithful eruption (22 Mb video)