RHH's photos with the keyword: norris geyser basin

This was last night's sunset in Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park. We left very early in the morning and drove straight through to Yellowstone. After getting a campsite at the Norris Campground, we spent the day exploring the park. We had a beautiful day and our only complaint was that the park, even in September, is far too busy. In the evening we went to Norris Geyser Basin and after hiking the trails there, watched the sunset from Porcelain Basin. Norris is one of the most thermally active areas in the park and one of our favorite areas. There were not many people around the geyser basin when we were hiking around and setting up for the sunset - around 5:00 the crowds disappear to their lodgings and meals - but we had one gentleman taking photos where we set up and we chatted a while with him. He and his wife were volunteering in the park teaching people photography and setting up artist's groups to meet in certain spots to paint and do other art work and finding venues for small shows where people could display their work. They had a show scheduled but we were unable to go. This morning after a quick breakfast and coffee we drove out the east entrance to the park and continued through Cody, Wyoming to Tensleep Canyon and on to Rapid City, South Dakota. We are having our supper now and using the restaurant's internet before finding a place to spend the night. We intend, weather permitting, to go on to the Badlands of South Dakota tomorrow, continuing on from there to our destination in Michigan, though we do not plan to be in Michigan until the weekend, Friday or Saturday. We'll be there for several weeks.

This creek, really just runoff from the geysers and hot springs, runs through the Back Basin at Norris, the most thermally active area in Yellowstone National Park. Like most of the geysers basins, this one is accessible by boardwalks.

Porcelain Basin is part of the Norris Geyser Basin on the upper west side of Yellowstone National Park. Most of thermal activity in this area is in the form of hot springs and steam vents such as these. The Norris Basin geysers are on the other side of the hill and beyond the trees in the photo.

This is the same geyser as the previous picture. Most of the time Steamboat only steams and releases small quantities of water as in the photo, but occasionally it erupts as it did for the first time in eight years this past summer. Sadly, we were not there when it erupted. The picture was difficult, taken into the early morning sun from the only vantage point available, so this was the best I could do.

Taken in the Norris Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. Steamboat Geyser itself is just visible at the top of the picture. Ordinarily it only steams but it erupted for the first time in eight years on August 2nd, 2013. We would love to have seen it erupt but were there a month ahead of time. This photo looks up the hill where the water from the geyser runs off. I'll posty a picture of the geyser itself tomorrow.

These are characteristic of what can be found all over Yellowstone National Park - hot water seeping up through the ground and the seeps colored by thermophilic algae. The area covered in this photo is only a few feet across and the photo was taken from one of the boardwalks in Porcelain Basin.

Photographed in the Norris Geyser Basin, this hot spring appears to be rather new with trees still standing in and around it and only a small area affected by the heat and acidity of the water. It is also very hot as the bluish color shows. Another indication that is new is the lack of a name. Most of the geysers, hot pools, hot springs, terraces and other features in the tourist areas have names, but this did not. Thermal activity can spring up nearly anywhere, especially in an very active area like Norris and can also just as quickly disappear. Seismic activity in and outside of the park, annual rainfall or lack thereof, and other factors all affect the thermal activity.

Porcelain Basin is a part of the Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park. It is noted especially for its hot springs, steam vents and pools. It is on the west side of the park just north of the place where the two loops that the main road makes through park come together. It is one of the most active areas in the park and is also one of the most beautiful, though I say that hesitantly, since there isn't any part of the park that isn't beautiful. The photo below is very old, an old film photo taken in 1979 on one of our first visits to the park, but shows the reason for the name, Porcelain Basin.

The water shown is very hot and is run-off from the hot spring in the Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park. The colors are of thermophilic (heat-loving) algae and bacteria that live in the hot water. Water at temperatures of 167 degrees Fahrenheit and above contain thermophiles that allow the water to retain its blue color. Below 167 degrees that thermophiles are bright yellow or orange and as the water cools to 120-130 degrees (still too hot to touch - a hot tub is around 100 degrees) the colors change to green and brown. These thermophiles can also live in water that is very acidic and must be able to do so when the thermal features produce sulfuric acid (the rotten-egg smell in the geyser basins is the sulfur).

The photo was taken in Norris Geyser Basin and shows vents where steam and hot water escape from the pressurized "plumbing" system below. These are just one of many thermal features in Yellowstone National Park.