Geysers & Such...Into the Park!

Here's the front entrance to Yellowstone. It's massive. Can you see Hannah in front of the left side? She looks like an ant. I had trouble getting it in my telephoto lens because I couldn't back up far enough to get the entire thing....it's as massive as the park itself...a clue of what's to come! ================================

The first morning we got up and ate a pop tart and went out to see Old Faithful errupt in front of our Snow Lodge.( that's our lodge for the next 3 nights in the B&W photo) Here's some info on Geysers in general...of which Old Faithful is one....
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How Geysers Work...if you were wondering....

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Geysers are hot springs with narrow spaces in their plumbing, usually near the surface. These constrictions prevent water for circulating freely to the surface where heat would escape. The deepest circulating water can exceed the surface boiling point of 199° F / 93° C. The surrounding pressure also increases with depth, much as it does with depth in the ocean. Increased pressure exerted by the enormous weight of the overlying rock and water prevents the water from vaporizing. As the water rises, steam forms. Bubbling upward, steam expands as it nears the top of the water column until the bubbles are too large and numerous to pass freely through the constrictions. At a critical point, the confined bubbles actually lift the water above, causing the geyser to splash and overflow. This decreases pressure on the system, and violent boiling results. Tremendous amounts of steam force water out of the vent, and the eruption begins. Water is expelled faster than it enter the geyser's plumbing system, and the heat and pressure gradually decrease. The eruption stops when the water reservoir is exhausted or when the gas bubbles diminish enough to be able to rise without ejecting the water.

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Old Faithful erupts every 90 minutes; shoots between 3700 & 8400 gallons of water 125 feet into the air. The show lasts between 1.5 to 5 minutes. For us, the shows were shorter and we saw it erupt three times on three different days. The entire area around Old Faithful is one big hot spot. You can see geysers and bubbling pools and warm springs all over the place. Anywhere there's steam, there's a hot spot. See below: all these hot spots and warm springs are in the immediate vicinity of Old Faithful. There is 3 mile wooden walkway all the way around them all. There are also some mud pots and paint pots also around. (I'll explain those later).

The Bacteria living in the pools makes the colors.