We found a campground that could accommodate us - Madison campground, at 6806ft [2091m]. This became our base for the next three nights. After checking out our spot we took off to see some sights. I wanted to go to see the Old Faithful geyser. On the way there we stopped and looked at some other hot springs and geysers as well. Some had blue water, some white, some was red and some was clear and some was even mud, all just bubbling up.
The colorful yellow-brown stuff below is thermophiles, heat-loving microorganisms, that live in hot springs. Green and brown thermophiles like cooler water and yellow and orange live in hotter water. The blue water in some hot springs means that the water temperature is near boiling and very few microorganisms live in there. In these hot springs the water absorbs all wavelengths of light except blue, which the pool reflects.
<--We saw another Volkswagen!
We arrived at the Old Faithful area just as it had erupted so we had to wait for a long time until it erupted again. Usually it erupts with intervals from 40 minutes to 126 minutes. Well, it happened that this time it was more towards the 126 minutes... We walked around and saw some little geysers and then we just sat and waited. Just about 10 to 15 minutes before erupting the wind started picking and it started raining. It was really cold.
There were really lots of people waiting to see the eruption.
At first it just steamed and then it gave some small spouts of water.
Then it just steamed for a while again. Then it repeated the spouts and steamed again. And finally it spurted the water up.
I have to say that I imagined it to be bigger, kind of more grand. David said that he remembered it being bigger as well. It must have been either a small spout day or maybe a wrong time of year. Apparently the size of the eruption varies with the seasons.
