Yellowstone - Midway Geyser Basin

I took a slight detour off my route to visit Gibbon Falls on the Gibbon River. Discovered in 1872 this trapezoidal waterfall had a gradual descent with a drop of 84ft (25m).

Wanting to explore more, I meandered into Firehole Canyon alongside Firehole River. Here I enjoyed the 40ft (12m) drop Firehole Falls and a little further down, I took the opportunity to go for a swim in one of the only two areas in Yellowstone that are sanctioned swimming holes.

Refreshed, I trekked on until I reached Firehole River Bridge and crossed it into Midway Geyser Basin. Once called Hell’s Half Acre, the basin has two of the largest features: Grand Prismatic Spring and Excelsior Geyser.

Visually stunning with its multitude of vibrant colours, Grand Prismatic is the largest spring in the USA and the third largest spring in the world. It has a diameter of 370ft (113m) and a depth of 160ft (50m). The spring discharges 2,100 litres of water per minute that reaches temperatures of 160°F (70°C). The prismatic colours closely resemble those seen in a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green and blue.

For a bit more visual stimuli there is the little Turquoise Pool with its deep ocean blue colour beautifully reflecting the scattering of white clouds beneath the blue sky. Named by the Hayden Expedition in 1878 the pool’s temperature is between 142-160°F (61-71°C).

Lastly, I stopped by the Excelsior Geyser, a dormant geyser crater which today is a hot spring but back in the late 1800s, it would erupt to heights of about 300ft (91m) and just as wide. It used to erupt every 2 mins to 5 hours and lasted anywhere from 1-3.5 minutes. Dormant most of the 20th century, the Excelsior suddenly erupted in 1985 for two days straight, as high as 80ft (24m) and between 2004-2006 it did once more with eruptions up to 10ft (3m). For now, it's back to being dormant.

An incredible location that is as visually appealing on the ground as it is fascinating to see via satellite imaging.



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