Apple Pie and Yellowstone Park

Ed was expecting that Old Faithful and these various places would be primitive, out of the way places -- NOT SO! Parking lots were full and there were people every place we went.

Saturday was our second day tour. The whole thing reminded me somewhat of driving on Skyline Drive in Virginia. There are VERY few roads, especially considering the Yellowstone National Park is over 2,000,000 acres.

We stopped at the Continental Divide near the small Lake Isa. I had forgotten that the Continental Divide is like the top of a roof. Usually the water on the West would go West and that on the East would go East. In this case, the water on the West ended up in the Atlantic Ocean and the water on the East ended up in the Gulf of Mexico.

I thought these water lilies were unusual.

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I now have a general concept of what Yellowstone is about and am going to explain it in simplistic terms. Envision baking an apple pie and you forget to cut slits in the top crust. What happens? After a while the steam can build up and the pie might explode all over your oven.

Think of the 2.2 million acres of this National Park as a giant pie. Over 5 billion years ago, instead of exploding, this huge area imploded. Today, that steam is still underground and the area is referred to as a caldera (caldron/big cooking pot). There is not another place on earth like this one.

This steam under the park manifests itself in 4 different types of thermal events: steam only, mud pots, hot springs and geyers.

The steam pots were seen fairly often and you could be sure by the sulfer (rotten egg) smell.
The mud pots were holes of simmering mud.

The hot springs are like pools of clear boiling water. The water that drains off sustains bacteria. At the highest temperature, are the yellows, in the cooler areas are the oranges, and the coolest areas yield browns.

The most dramatic thermal event type is the geyser. Old Faithful became famous because it faithfully erupted every hour. Now, it blows about every 90 minutes.

The water and steam seemed to reach right up to the clouds, although it was only about 200 feet.

It was incredible how many people were there! There were curving benches around the area, filled with people. When the geyser erupted, I was struck by the silence of the crowd and how quiet the water was. Another gal in our group noticed the same thing.

These people were to my left while watching Old Faithful.

These folks were to my right -- there were a LOT of them.

In Yellowstone National Park, there are no cell phone signals nor is there internet service. After being without a cell phone and internet service for 3 days, Mary finally blew her gasket!