Traveling with Tucson : Yellowsone

Our last day in Yellowstone and we'll stop at the Midway Geiser Basin to see the Grand Prismatic Hot Spring on our way out, though we will not have seen everything. Hopefully we'll be back to catch the rest.

The place is already packed at 10 a.m. but we go ahead and park in one of the Tour Bus spots because cars are parked in the RV spaces and we figure we won't be that long.

Rudyard Kipling visited Yellowstone in 1889and immortalized the basin by referring to it as "Hell's Half Acre."

Despite its small size Midway possesses two of the largest hot springs in the world.
With a Temperature of 199°F and Dimensions 276x328 feet, Excelsior was once the largest geyser In the world. Since its eruptive activity in the 1880s when it would erupt up to 300' high, it is now considered a productive thermal spring, discharging 4050 gallons per minute.

Off in the distance is the Grand Prismatic Hot Spring with a Temperature of 147-188°F and Dimensions 250x380 feet. It is the largest hot spring in Yellowstone, and is considered to be the third largest in the world-New Zealand has the two largest springs.

Looks like a tempting beach at low tide

The Hayden Expedition in 1871 named this spring because of its beautiful coloration. The colors begin with a deep blue center followed by pale blue. Green algae forms beyond the shallow edge. Outside the scalloped rim a band of yellow fades into orange. Red then marks the outer border.

Here is a picture from above I got off the internet

A man died the week before after wandering 225 feet off the boardwalk at the Norris Geyser Basin and slipped into the Spring. They found a few personal effects but no body was recovered. The temperature of the spring is known to reach levels that can cause third-degree burns after just seconds of exposure.

Another group of tourists were caught and fined for walking on the Grand Prismatic Spring. Another group was video taped walking on the Spring. This is just crazy. I googled the latest incident to see where it happened and was shocked to see how many deaths and injuries have been caused by stepping of the boardwalks. One was regarding a man who jumped into a hot spring to try and rescue his friends dog who had jumped out of the car and ran into the hot spring. That story still haunts me.

Another woman went up to a Buffalo lying down near the thermal springs and petted it! She is lucky to be alive.

Here are peoples hats that have blown of and on to the thermal crust

The Turquoise Pool. Temperature 142-160°F Dimensions 100x110 feet. The 1878 Hayden Expedition named this pool for its milky, white bottom and gem-like, blue-colored water.

In June and July purple fringed gentians are common and bloom on the barren ground surrounding this pool.

The masses continue to come. I wonder what the weight limit is on that bridge?

Well since we have the 5th wheel in tow there's not much chance of parking so we head out. Along the way a car in front of us stops suddenly to look at an Elk on the side of the road. We are traveling at 45 mph and the trailer weighs 7,000 lbs. Applying the brakes won't do that car much good but fortunately the people in the other lane had the good sense to pull over to the side of the road and Gary was able to swerve around them. The number one cause of death and injury in the Park is car accidents. Instead of the Elk they got to see the cougar on the side of our 28' 5th wheel as we careened by and got to live another day.

Gary needs to destress so we pull over at a scenic area by the river and take Tucson for a walk and Gary chats with the Fly Fisher woman