Bob and Pam Nodine: Yellowstone has large areas of geothermal activity

When we visited Yellowstone five years ago we took in Old Faithful and many of the more popular geothermal attractions. We had not been to West Thumb Geyser Basin or Norris Geyser Basin so on this trip we focused on those areas. The geothermal areas in Yellowstone have walkways that allow an up close look at these sites. There are many signs warning people to stay on the walkways because the soil is dangerous at many locations and could give way plunging you down to an almost certain death. Also, most of the pools are not only near or above the boiling temperature of water, some are acidic. The park ranger will ask you to hold up your finger and then will tell you it is not a thermometer. There are always people who ignore the warnings and many have died as a result. The link below describes some of these incidents.

https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/cautionary-tale

The West Thumb Geyser Basin is actually on the shore of Yellowstone Lake.

Yellowstone Lake at West Thumb Geyser Basin

Pulling back shows the geyser basin

The next photo is one of the thermal pools at West Thumb and you can see that it drains into Yellowstone Lake.

Thermal pool draining into Yellowstone Lake

Looking at this short video of one of the pools at West Thumb demonstrates the heat rising

Norris Geyser Basin is located in the northwest area of the park far from Yellowstone Lake. On the highway a few miles before reaching the basin is Beryl Spring. This is one of the hottest springs in Yellowstone and the water temperature varies between 188 and 192 degrees F. The following video will give you a feel for the activity of this spring.

https://youtu.be/TuLTp26Y_L4

The following photo of Beryl Spring was taken in the morning and the cool air was condensing the water vapor into steam making it difficult to see the spring. The video above was shot later in the day after the air warmed up.