My Visual Adventures: Sharing my Travel, Sports, Nature, and Animal Photography. With a little bit of life thrown in. I luv living life in Northern California.
Proud single mom of one beautiful daughter who shares my love of sports and music. She doesn't share my love of the outdoors which I find weird. I love photography and wish I had a better camera!! Maybe someday...
Yellowstone! Gorgeous Geysers at Black Sand Basin and Bison! May 18, 2021
While Grand Teton National Park was amazing beyond my wildest expectation, I was finally in Yellowstone! I hadn't been since I was a child and don't really have many memories of it. I've ALWAYS wanted to go back. And I finally made it!
But before we get into that, be sure to check out my previous entries documenting the beauty and must see places in Grand Teton National Park!
As I mentioned in my previous posts, my anxieties were in my head a bit and I was worrying a lot about my reservation at Madison campground being messed up and whether not not I had a space reserved for that night (the confirmation email only said night of the 19th).
So I was kind of rushing through southern Yellowstone and telling myself not to make any more stops in case the campground wasn't staffed when I got there and I had no space. My fears weren't completely out of left field because of the confirmation email and also because when I had arrived at Jenny Lake the night before, the staff had gone and it was about the same time.
But when I saw the steam rising from Black Sand Basin, I truly couldn't resist and turned right in.
I was so glad I did!
Not only to get out of my car and see these crazy amazing geological features, but also because the first thing I saw when I got out of my car was a bison sleeping in the trees! My first Yellowstone bison! And it seemed so close! But in actuality, I was far enough away that I couldn't get a great picture. haha
And then it was time to explore the basin. It was so beautiful! Truly the blue sky, the fluffy clouds, along with the amazing features on the ground are too much for words to describe. I made a little video so you can feel what it was like from the moment I got out of the car. The audio is from the Yellowstone Sound Library and is Black Sand Pool.
It really sounded pretty much like that! In fact, there is some of my own audio in the video, but I can't stand hearing myself breathe and talk in these so I cut most of it out. haha I need to quit talking so much. lol
It was so gorgeous that of course I had to take a bunch of photos too.
Here are a couple maps of the area:
This is Spouter Geyser which is also in the video.
And this is the Cliff Geyser! This round pool on the edge of Iron Spring Creek - forming a "cliff" over the water (hence the name) - fills with boiling water and then...
...it erupts! I think it can get as high as 40 feet, but this was obviously one of the more minor eruptions.
I'm sorry that I can't remember exactly what each of these are named exactly, but I'm going to take my best guess. I believe this is the Opalescent pool.
I took this close up of the lovely gold runoff! It doesn't do it justice as to how it looked like liquid gold shimmering in the sunlight.
Rainbow Pool
And/Or Sunset Lake
Another close up shot of gorgeous, misty blue and pink runoff.
Here is a very short video of Sunset Lake and Rainbow Pool:
This is another view of Cliff Geyser! This time with a bigger eruption and more of Iron Spring Creek.
So cool.
So much fun to walk along the windy boardwalk and watch and listen as the water churns, boils, and steams! I considered stopping at Midway Geyser basin, but my feet were a little bit sore and I was a little bit tired so I decided to press on, not knowing how long it might take me to get to Madison.
I did get this amazing shot of Grand Prismatic Spring boardwalk with the steam rising around the lines of people. I absolutely love this dramatic black and white edit!
Here is a version in color in case you prefer. :-)
The bright water in front is runoff into Iron Spring Creek.
Along the way, I had a wonderful encounter with a lone bison. I say lone, but he wasn't lonely as he was covered with little birdies!
After this amazing encounter, I made it to Madison Campground, were I confirmed that I had a wonderful camp site for both nights! I went and got settled in, pitched my tent, etc., and then decided that I was going to head back out since there were a few hours of daylight left.
But, when I got to the main road in the campground, my plans were derailed by an entire herd of bison blocking the road and coming through in droves! There were at least 20 bison and as I pulled up, one was butted by another one and stumbled down the small embankment!
As I saw this, I put my car in park and grabbed a phone and started filming! It was soooo cool! Then I went back to my campsite and warned a few people that I saw out and about that there was a herd of bison coming through. Some people who had the bison come straight through their sites had to grab children and dash into tents and RVs. It was wild!
I put together a little video of my bison encounters - including a very short clip of two bison play fighting! Wow! Hope you enjoy!
See ya next post when I see even more bison, visit Grand Prismatic, and hike to Morning Glory Pool!
xoxo
Nikon D600 with Nikor 28-300 lens & Nikon D7200 with Sigma Contemporary 150-600 lens
