Great Fountain Geyser and forest fire smoke, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

This is a photo of the Great Fountain Geyser along the Firehole Lake Drive in Yellowstone National Park. This was taken on August 15, 2016 while a forest fire was raging on the horizon.  The smoke extends from the setting sun to the upper right corner.

Great Fountain Geyser is one of the geysers that the rangers can predict when it will erupt, but the window of time that it might erupt is plus or minus two hours. When it's building toward an eruption, the vent and surrounding terraces will fill with water to overflowing and the column of water will shoot up out of the pooling water, as opposed to geysers like Old Faithful Geyser that erupt out of a cone.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Beauty Pool, in Yellowstone, sure is a beauty

Beauty Pool, in Yellowstone's Upper Geyser Basin, reflects the sky in this wide angle image taken July 31, 2019. You can get to it by starting out from the the Old Faithful area and hiking along the boardwalk on the east side of the Firehole River. It's just north of Grand Geyser, another feature worth watching. Beauty Pool is connected to the nearby feature called Chromatic Spring. When one of these features has their water rise and overflow, the water level in the other decreases. This back-and-forth between the two can take weeks or even years.

We were lucky to have no wind despite the cloudy conditions, so the reflection of the clouds turned out as we hoped. To fit the whole pool in the image, we used a wide-angle lens on a smartphone. It's capable of capturing images of 180º and 360º. This image was captured with 180º setting and edited for levels, local contrast, and sharpened.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Sunset in Yellowstone, lighting up Clepsydra Geyser

We arrived in Yellowstone on our 2019 trip around sunset. After setting up camp at the Madison Campground, we went to the Lower Geyser Basin, a.k.a. the Fountain Paint Pots, to look around before it got dark. We got to see Clepsydra Geyser in its nearly continuous state of eruption as the sun was turning red on the horizon. Clouds floating overhead helped reflect some of the sunlight back down. The way the western clouds were shaped made the fiery colors take on the shape of two prongs or maybe a duck. At least that's what it made me, Rick, think of. At this stop along the park road, this feature is the farthest out on the boardwalk.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Fly Geyser, geothermal feature in Nevada

We went on a tour of the Fly Ranch on October 20, 2018. The tour includes the world-famous Fly Geyser. It was the result of an attempt to drill into the geothermal area in 1964 to generate electricity but it didn't work out. The feature has been building up minerals ever since. That's 54 years! At the rate of 6-8 inches (15 - 20 cm) per year. It isn't a true geyser, though, because there is never a quiet period, since it's spouts water continuously. We've looked it up and learned that the proper name for this feature is a "perpetual spouter." We counted 5 spouts at the top.

Unfortunately the right side of this formation was shot at, leaving it looking crumbled.

Settings were ISO 100, f16, 1/45 sec, with a 35 mm focal length with a polarizer.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Fly Geyser, Gerlach, Nevada

After knowing of the existence of this geothermal feature in northern Nevada for a number of years, from photos in photo magazines, we finally got to go on a tour of this private ranch to see the Fly Geyser up close and personal.  This feature resulted from a geothermal test well drilled in 1964 that was either never capped or was capped improperly and has been spouting hot water into the air ever since.

The cone has formed from deposition from the mineral-rich water cooling as it emerged and is growing at a rate of 6 to 8 inches per year.  This is a phenomenal rate for a geyser.  But, then again, this is not a true geyser.  A true geyser has a quiet phase and an eruption phase.  We've checked the terms for geothermal features and it looks like perpetual spouter would be the most accurate term for it.  In any case, this mound of mineral deposits and brightly-colored algae growing on this cone is a spectacular sight.

These photos were taken with an eclipse filter on the lens to force a long shutter speed of 30 seconds and f16 and it produces a silky look for the five spouts of water emerging from the top of the cone.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.