Yellowstone: Late Summer to Early Fall 2020
Article 1: Old Faithful (First in the series about my journey to Yellowstone in the Late Summer and Early Fall of 2020)
Background
While I knew about Yellowstone National Park from nature programs as a child, my fascination with this park grew due to studying Geology in college and from watching “Christmas in Yellowstone” on PBS with my family for the first time in 2006 and in subsequent years. I finally made my first journey to Yellowstone in late August of 2020. I stayed for 3 weeks. Due to the worldwide pandemic Covid-19, national parks in the United States closed in the early parts of 2020. Parks began to re-open by the Summer but travel within the United States and logistics of a trip to Yellowstone posed challenges (i.e., access, food and shelter). Alone, I persevered.
Yellowstone can be a very difficult place to photograph rife with potential challenges and dangers. To name a few, a Yellowstone experience can include dramatic temperature and weather changes, natural disasters, difficult driving conditions and road hazards, crowds (and for 2020 and due to Covid-19 avoiding crowds and people), remote locations with limited reception or connectivity and wildlife encounters. I have a deeper appreciation now for all of the photographs that I have seen over the years and the incredibly hard work other photographers have endured to work in Yellowstone.
Yellowstone: Late Summer to Early Fall 2020
Yellowstone is a massive park (3,468.4 square miles), is constantly changing and would take many years and many trips to cover it in its entirety. Yellowstone has a stunning number of destinations, holds half of the world’s geysers, and hundreds to thousands of species of plants and animals.
After my trip to Yellowstone, I published a book entitled “Yellowstone: Late Summer to Early Fall of 2020,” (also see the links at the end of the article) which is a travel photography book that provides historical background information on Yellowstone National Park, as a backdrop to set the stage for the book’s images that depict the wonders of the park by traversing The Grand Loop, and offers travel tips and picture taking insights for a journey to Yellowstone. Specifically, I detailed my journey around The Grand Loop moving counterclockwise starting from the South Entrance where my trip began and ended. For this book, I focused on geothermal features and nature scenes but I did luck into capturing some photos of my wildlife encounters here and there. I will return for trips dedicated solely to animals — it really is a whole other beast!
This article is the first in a series on Yellowstone which supplements the book with additional information, more photos, stories and videos of the amazing treasures within Yellowstone. I will release each subsequent article under the name “Yellowstone: Late Summer to Early Fall 2020” (with a subheading organized by location within the park) from time to time but no place within Yellowstone is better to start than with Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin.
The Upper Geyser Basin
The Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone has the highest concentration of geothermal features in the park. This array of features includes the most famous Old Faithful, as well as four other predictable features including Castle Geyser (with an interval of approximately 13 hours between major eruptions) and Grand Geyser. Quaternary rhyolitic lava flows (between approximately 4,500 to 2.5 millions years old, and silica rich volcanic rock, extrusive equivalent to granite) built the hills surrounding Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin. Glacial activity played a critical part in the formation of geysers by providing gravel deposits that act to store the water for eruptions.
Old Faithful
Old Faithful is a highly regular cone geyser that was first named in 1870 by the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition. Nathaniel Langford wrote about Old Faithful in his 1871 Scribner’s report: “It spouted at regular intervals nine times during our stay, the columns of boiling water being thrown from ninety to one hundred and twenty-five feet at each discharge, which lasted from fifteen to twenty minutes. We gave it the name of ‘Old Faithful.’” In the early days of the park, Old Faithful was used as a laundry where people would place garments in the cone and await them to be ejected steam washed.
Since 2000, Old Faithful has erupted consistently on an interval between 44 minutes to two hours. More than 1,000,000 eruptions have been recorded. In 1938, Harry Woodward first documented a mathematical connection between the eruptions, intervals and durations. Old Faithful attributes its reliability to not being connected to any other geothermal feature. Old Faithful eruptions may eject 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of boiling water to a height of 106 to 185 feet and may last anywhere from 1 and one-half minutes to 5 and one-half minutes. The average height is 145 feet. In 1939, intervals between eruptions ranged from 60 to 110 minutes with an average of 66.5 minutes, but the length has increased over time to about 90 minutes between eruptions now (which may be the result of earthquakes affecting underground water levels).
The Old Faithful Visitor and Education Centers post signs that inform tourists when the next eruptions will take place. Crowds begin to gather between 20 to 30 minutes in advance of an eruption to secure seats of good viewing spots. Seating is limited but plenty of room for standing. For photographers, Old Faithful’s predictability makes setting and capturing images considerably easier but arriving well ahead of eruption will maximize the opportunity to set up in a front row, unobstructed location.
Watch the following video to see Old Faithful erupting at sunset:
Other Upper Geyser Basin Thermal Features
The Upper Geyser Basin covers approximately a two square mile area and has almost one-fourth of all geysers in the world. I could not possibly photograph all of them in 1 trip, but the following images are just some of the most notable thermal features from Upper Geyser Basin:
Morning Glory Pool
Morning Glory Pool has a temperature of 171.6 degrees Fahrenheit, dimensions 23 by 26.6 feet, 23 feet deep, named for resemblance to the corolla and color of a morning glory and is one of the most popular and iconic thermal features in Yellowstone. The early roads of Yellowstone came very close to this pool but were re-routed due to visitors carelessly dumping debris into the pool. Much debris has been removed (socks, towels, handkerchiefs, $86.27 in pennies and other coins) but over time it has reduced water flows, causing a drop in temperature and changes in the bacteria and colors.
Watch the following video to see Morning Glory Pool steam:
Other Videos of Upper Geyser Basin Thermal Features
My Book || Yellowstone: Late Summer to Early Fall 2020
“Yellowstone: Late Summer to Early Fall of 2020,” is a travel photography book that provides historical background information on Yellowstone National Park, as a backdrop to set the stage for the book’s images that depict the wonders of the park by traversing The Grand Loop, and offers travel tips and picture taking insights for a journey to Yellowstone. See the link below:
