Part Three: Norris Geyser Basin, Mud Volcano Group, and Bison Mating Season

I have to admit, I had no idea that the Norris Geyser Basin even existed until I went on this trip. Sure, everyone has heard about Old Faithful and maybe they even think that seeing it blow once or twice is a representative sampling of all the park's geysers. They would be mistaken. On my recent trip to Yellowstone, we turned into the Basin and stopped in the midst of a pleasant but unremarkable forest to have a bit of lunch before making the two-mile tour via an extensive network of boardwalks. The forest is quickly replaced by an unvegetated expanse punctuated by steam, geysers, white calcium deposits, boiling ochre-red streams, and unexpectedly striking aqua-blue pools. These boiling pools were so precisely the color of the glacial lakes in the High Sierras that I knew that gorgeous color was due to complete absence of life. A ranger later confirmed this, and also explained the pools refract all colors in the spectrum except blue, which is why they seem to be reflecting the color of the sky. What is it about that color that is so beautiful to the soul? Later in the trip, we saw far more dramatic examples of these rich deep awe-inspiring blues on a vaster scale, but I was very excited to see my first one here.


The smell of sulphur in the basin is at times overwhelming, especially when hot drafts of noxious steam sweep in on the slightest of wind. More than a few times, I found myself reeling and gasping for the first fresh of patch air I could find. In the 19th century, people would roam too close to the edges of these pools or on the deceptively firm-looking white calcium deposits nearby, only to fall in and be boiled alive - or burned badly enough to live in great suffering until death mercifully relieved them soon after. Though we did not see any, you might occasionally spot the skeletons of deer or bison that roam too close to the edges. Humans are now safeguarded by the boardwalks. This is one of the boiling streams as it flows away from the geyser basin.


And this is one of the larger steaming geyser pools.



We visited the Mud Volcano group on a different day, but I'm including it in this entry because they were fascinating in a completely different way from the aqua-blue pools of the Norris Geyser Basin. This was a small region of boiling brown and black and hissing pools and fumaroles. Again, boardwalks protect humans from falling into the mudpots, fumaroles, sulphurous springs, and odorous pools. The area is too dangerous for trails and the volcanic heat underneath constantly eats into the nearby forest, so that an area that is green and verdant one year may be quite dead and eaten up a few years later.

I have to admit I'm particularly proud of the next photo, which neatly shows the boiling Sulphur Cauldron in the foreground juxtaposed with the serenity of a forested hill and blue sky with white puffy clouds. Add in your mind the sounds of a fierce gurgling boil and fizzing sounds, plus the smell of sulphur, and you'll have the idea.


And here are some other shots.




Just before we visited the Mud Volcanoes, we encountered a herd of bison on either side of the road. We stopped and watched them for a long enough time to realize that it was mating season, and that the males were establishing their turf with the females. Here's my favorite one - note the bison couple in the distance, and in the foreground, a male coming up close for a sniff of his prospective mate.



This is a close-up of the hopeful male making his approach.



And here's a solitary bull who hasn't found anyone yet! He's thinking of moving in on someone else's action and picking a fight. Seriously. That's what rutting bulls will do.