If I Were An Eagle ... looking at Old Faithful

But, I'm not an eagle...  I had to hike a half mile and climb 250 feet to get this view.  It was well worth the trip.  The sky was blue and Old Faithful had one of its more exuberant eruptions,  The view from down below is always impressive, but there are always so many people, even in the off-season.  We found a spot where we were all alone, and just sat and waited.

When we left Big Sky for the park, the sky was very hazy.  As we got closer to the park, the haze picked up, and sure enough, we started smelling smoke.  A wild fire on the eastern side of the park, ignited by lightening strikes over the weekend, was burning and we suspected that we might be in for a day of low visibility and no photo ops.  Unbelievably, just about 3 miles before we got to Old Faithful, the smoke cleared and we had a picture perfect environment.  Smoke goes wherever the wind blows, and fortunately the wind was blowing from the south taking it all away from us.  Unfortunately, the wind gusts caused the fire to spread.  We have had an unusually wet summer here and no wildfires until now.  The last two weeks have been dry, however, and there's enough dead wood (thanks to the pine beetle) to provide ready tinder when lightening strikes. 

Old Faithful is located in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone, part of the larger caldera that bubbles and spews constantly.  Off in the distance, we could see Castle Geyser which erupts about every 14 hours.  It's a long wait, compared to Old Faithful which erupts on a 90-minute schedule.  But, when you see Castle Geyser, it may erupt for as long as 90 minutes.  Indeed, we hiked down on the west side of the overlook and in the 30 or so minutes it took us to reach Castle, it was still erupting.

Solitary Geyser stands alone in a forested area at the bottom of the overlook trail.  The sign tells us that it erupts about every 5 minutes, but this is one of those bubbling eruptions that sounds more like a mud pot.  This is one of the more beautiful geysers, deep blue in the center surrounded by yellow sulphur powder.

Most of the Upper Geyser Basin is connected by raised walkways and bridges.  The Firehole River meanders through the basin and the geysers empty into it.  We walked back over the river and headed to the parking lot.  As we drove back north toward West Yellowstone, all the smoke had blown away, but we did see the smoke plume to the east.

Word today is that the fire is contained to 9,600 acres.  A cold front is on the way and 4-6 inches of snow is forecast for tomorrow.  Sounds like a good time to head to Tennessee!