May 29-June 1

Finally I arrive at Old Faithful Inn, although I didn’t stay here, but at the Old Faithful Lodge which is actually a series of cabins. Old Faithful Inn is a massive historic lodge built in 1903-1904. It has a massive multistory lobby with a massive fireplace. The structure is the largest log building in the world at 7 stories high. The logs are lodge pole pine and even the branches provide support. The fireplace is actually four in one with a different fire place and flue on each side. The rooms are pretty much the same over one hundred years. I did not stay here as the rooms have to share bathrooms. More of the history can be found in Wikipedia if you are interested .

I have included a few historical photographs from Wikipedia.

After lunch in Old Faithful Inn, this is first view of Old Faithful Geyser which erupts about every 90 minutes.

Then I went to the nearby Black Sand Basin with a number of hot springs and small geysers. The two photos are of Rainbow Pool in which the water dissolves silica and then redeposits it as white rings around the spring.

This is Sunset Lake hot spring.

These are how the run off channels look with the bright thermo bacteria colors.

This is Emerald thermal hot springs pool surrounded by brilliant orange and yellow bacteria and algae mats.

These are the Cinnamon Spouters which are small perpetually active thermal features.

The right two images shows the orange and yellow bacterial mat flowing into Iron Spring Creek in Black Sand Basin. This is also the location of the Cliff Geyser.

Later in the afternoon I had another chance to see the Old Faithful eruption which lasted for more than 5 minutes with good contrast with the sky and steam. Try the 16 second video.

More still photos of the eruption.

In the evening, I went out to see parts of the geyser field near Old Faithful. I was lucky to see the Beehive Geyser erupting.

This is Punch Bowl Spring characterized by the raised rim of geyserite crystals.

This photo shows Solitary Geyser, a frequent fountain type geyser. Upper right is Great Fountain geyser.

As sunset was approaching I was near Castle Geyser.

These are views along the Firehole River with many steam vents.

This is Great Fountain Geyser but it is not erupting.

Not sure what this hot spring is called.

The next two days it rained virtually all day both days. But rain or no rain the Grand Prismatic Spring is the most beautiful in all of Yellowstone. The first spring that you encounter on the boardwalk is Excelsior Geyser Crater with a massive turquoise thermal spring.

The photos try to capture the vibrant colors of the spring in abstract patterns.

The blue steam comes from reflected light from the turquoise color of the spring water. You can find an infinite number of abstract patterns.

The final turn on the board walk brings you to Opal Pool and Turquoise Pool which are unremarkable after the sights of Grand Prismatic Spring.

This concludes the sights around the Old Faithful area, so stay tuned for the next installment northward toward Mammoth Springs.