A mega volcano beneath our feet.

Dare we brave the tourist trap that is 'Old Faithful' - there would be toilets but would there be parking? The alternative we had was to park up-stream from old faithful & walk down to our planned geyser - riverside. As we drove down it became clear that the alternative route had no facilities to speak of, so into the hands of the tourist trap. We reasoned that with a hotel & visitor centre parking would be more like Mammoth than Prismatic Spring. And so it proved - dual carriageway in & vast swaths of parking. The issue would be remembering where the car was. Once toileted we headed to the visitor centre to get an update on predicted eruptions. It looked like Old Faithful was going to blow within 40 mins & would leave us 30 mins to get to Riverside, assuming everything went to plan. All timings had degrees of error so probably not then. Anyway settled down on one of the many benches surrounding Old Faithful along with the masses and had lunch & were entertained by Ranger Jeff, his stories and explanations of geysers & their inner workings. Passed the time until she blew & impressive it was too. In Iceland the geyser we saw lasted a matter of seconds. Here it was minutes & many of them at that. This is the most volcanic area in the world after all. Apparently 500 of the 900 geysers that exist in the world are in Yellowstone. Hot footed it down the river to Riverside Geyser & got a far more natural version - 100 as opposed to 1000 watching & a river and forest for background. You could hear the rumbling as it erupted this time. Took the scenic route back via all manner of weirdly named hot springs & geysers. Handily we got back just as you know who was erupting again. Took our time heading off as everyone else seemed to be making a beeline for their cars - not many walkers then. Once escape was made, we made our way back to base via the artists paint pots, a geyser basin so named because of the range of colours. It also had some bubbling mud areas. Took a bit of finding & ignored the oncoming thunderstorm but bubbling mud was located along with warnings of flying mud. Guess who got splatted?Read more