Lower Basin and Midway Geyser Basin
Lower Basin & Midway Geyser Basin
Norris to Madison (Grand Loop) Driving time 30 minutes. Distance 17 miles AND Madison to Old Faithful (Grand Loop). Driving time 35 minutes. Distance 16 miles
We continued on the Grand Loop from Norris to Madison with the Gibbon River alongside. At Madison we saw a shaded picnic area and the information station. Then, South of Madison, on the right (west) side of the road, we followed the turn-off for a beautiful one-way-drive along the Firehole River.
After we left the main road, we followed the scenic route along the Firehole River Canyon. Directly across from the Firehole River were massive walls of volcanic rock (rhyolite) rising from the west bank. The road climbed above the river and offered views of numerous cascades and waterfalls including the 40-foot high Firehole Falls.
When we rejoined the Grand Loop and passed by Nez Perce Creek, we noticed something you don’t see everyday: a bison walking slowly in a straight line in front of a big bus and behind was a bus with a long line of traffic. It was the first time we encountered a bison traffic jam.
Just south of Nez Perce Creek is the Lower Geyser Basin, the first of three extraordinary basins that contain the world’s largest share of geysers.
The Lower Basin is located 8 miles south of Madison and encompasses nearly 12 square miles with most of the thermal features widely scattered in small groups. Here we found Fountain Paint Pots, Yellowstone’s most famous mudpots.
The Fountain Paint Pot is named for the reds, yellows and browns of the mud in this area. Here we stopped and explored this intriguing area which also offers short walks to pools and geysers. About 1.2 miles south, we took the one-way Firehole Lake drive, which is about 2 miles long and took us to the magnificent Great Fountain Geyser.
Great Fountain is the only predictable geyser in the lower basin and erupts every 9 to 15 hours, (about 100 feet height), but once in a while has super-bursts of 200 feet. Its duration is usually one hour, but two-hour durations have also been witnessed. We sat and watched this geyser erupt for a while. Sunset time is very pretty around this area, but the clouds got in our way and we didn’t get to enjoy it as much as we would have liked.
We continued nine-and-a-half miles south of Madison and on the west side of the road we stopped at the Midway Geyser Basin.
Midway Geyser Basin is alongside the Firehole River and is much smaller than the other basins. Despite its small size, it contains two large features: the 200-by-300-foot wide Excelsior Geyser which pours over 4,000 U.S. gallons per minute into the Firehole River, and the 370-foot wide and 121-foot deep Grand Prismatic Spring, which is the largest hot spring in the United States and the third largest in the world. Its colors match the rainbow.
Excelsior Geyser: Back in the 1880s Excelsior Geyser erupted in bursts of 50 to 300 feet high. The thermal violence has formed the jagged crater and has ruptured the geysers underground system, causing eruptions to cease after 1890.
On September 14, 1985, Excelsior roared back to life with fourty-seven hours of major eruptions. Even though this geyser is unpredictable and its eruptions have been erratic, Excelsior’s outflow is constant. Pumping more than 400 gallons of boiling water per minute over the crater rim and into the Firehole river.
Grand Prismatic Springs: This is one of the highlights of our trip to Yellowstone. It is also one of its most popular attractions, and rightfully so.
Grand Prismatic is the largest and one of the most brilliant of Yellowstone’s colorful hot springs. It is the 3rd largest in the world. (New Zealand has the two largest springs). It is 300 feet wide and nearly 200 feet deep. It discharges an estimated 560 gallons of water every minute and deep beneath the surface, magma from an active volcano heats water that rises to the surface through fissures in the rocks.
To explore Grand Prismatic, we followed the 0.8 mile boardwalk loop which circles past the Excelsior Geyser. While we were there, Grand Prismatic was steaming like crazy, but we managed to see through the steam and take some nice photos. For outstanding aerial views though, hike the trail to Fairy Falls.
From here, we continued on the Grand Loop to the Upper Geyser Basin-Old Faithful.
Upper Geyser Basin-Old Faithful
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