Exploring West Yellowstone. Part 3 - July, 9th, 2022 - Grand Prismatic and Old Faithful

The bright, vivid colors in the Grand Prismatic Spring are the result of microbial mats around the edges of the mineral-rich water. The mats produce colors ranging from green to red. 

The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park is the largest hot spring in the United States. Extremely hot water travels 121 feet from a crack in the Earth to reach the surface of the spring. The hot spring has bright bands of orange, yellow, and green ring the deep blue waters in the spring. The multicolored layers get their hues from different species of thermophile (heat-loving) bacteria living in the progressively cooler water around the spring. And the deep blue center? That’s because water scatters the blue wavelengths of light more than others, reflecting blues back to our eyes.

The world’s most famous geyser, Old Faithful in Yellowstone, currently erupts around 20 times a day. These eruptions are predicted with a 90 percent confidence rate, within a 10 minute variation. Old Faithful can vary in height from 100-180 feet with an average near 130-140 feet and will last around a minute and a half. 

And a visit to the most popular tourist attraction in Yellowstone, Old Faithful. Discovered in 1870 by the Washburn Expedition, Old Faithful geyser was named for its frequent and somewhat predictable eruptions, which number more than a million since Yellowstone became the world’s first national park in 1872.