This year, we were excited to share “the interior” with dear friends Joe and Natalie from Maine who have explored Yellowstone with us many times, but never in winter. Often when we are at Old Faithful we focus on skiing first, then fit in the geysers between ski drops. Skiing the deep, silence of the snowy reaches of the interior is a special winter treat. This time we decided to stick closer to the geyser basin, and were glad we did! We discovered a whole other side of Yellowstone in winter.
Three Days in the Lower Geyser Basin
After breakfast each morning, our first stop was the Old Faithful Visitor Center to check the geyser prediction times, which are posted on a monitor behind the information desk. We’d jot them down, or take pictures of the predictions with our phones, then discuss our strategy. “Maybe we can head out and wait for Riverside, then work our way back towards Grand,” said George, and off we went. For three days we wandered the basin through sun, snow, and howling wind, loosely chasing predictions but generally enjoying the sounds and smells that are unlike anywhere else. In the late afternoon we’d head back to our cabins for a little rest, then meet for dinner at the Snow Lodge, and end the evening lounging on the couches in the lodge playing games of “Sorry” and “Would You Rather.”
When we first came to Yellowstone, we lived at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch in the Lamar Valley, and were totally focused on wildlife. At first we found the lure of wolves, bears, bison, and elk more appealing. The more time you spend in Yellowstone’s geyser basins, however, the more the magic of the thermals seep into you, bubbling and gurgling beneath the surface, like the features themselves, until you are completely hooked.
Here are a few photos from our explorations. If you are reading this on a mobile, if you keep scrolling past the photos you’ll find the video of several geysers.
On our first evening, there was a Grand Geyser prediction for 7pm. Grand is one of our favorites—a fountain geyser that shoots water and steam 200 feet into the air; it is the tallest predictable geyser in the world. It’s both spectacular and intimate, because you watch it from the nearby boardwalk, much closer than Old Faithful, as the hot water outflow pours beneath your feet. Even though we were warm and cozy after a big dinner, we pulled on our coats, hats, gloves, balaclavas, etc and headed out into the geyser basin at night.
Despite the grander of the geyser basin in daytime, the nighttime has its own special magic with entirely different sensations. During the day, we get led around by our eyeballs and neglect our other senses. Night walking forces us to tune in in a different way despite it being a bit awkward, uncomfortable, and even a little scary. Walking in ANY geyser basin at night can be very dangerous and requires extra caution and vigilance. We had flashlights at the ready, and were extremely careful to stay exclusively on the boardwalk and paved pathways. We also watched (and listened) diligently for bison, which uncannily blend in to the darkness. Traveling thus, we slowly and carefully made our way to Grand, navigating by sound and smell and feel. While we could see a little, we were forced to rely more on our other senses than we would in the daytime, the landscape reduced to a collage of two dimensional shapes of light, dark, and darker. Although we ultimately realized we had missed the eruption, we gained so much more.
Less than 50 yards into our return trek, some of those dark shapes started moving en mass across the boardwalk. Bison! We stopped and listened from a distance as the herd traveled through, amazed at how this whole group of huge animals was completely quiet, save for a few soft grunts and the sound of their hooves clicking on the boardwalk. The gentle sounds of the bison superimposed on the bubbling and gurgling of the earth beneath our feet was truly unreal. After the bison passed through and we started again, another dark shape swooped right in front of George, as a great horned owl flew by. It is amazing really, that an animal as large as a bison, or a great horned owl can come upon you so quickly and absolutely silent, is this what the mouse experiences?
Here’s a video medley of some of the geysers and thermal features we encountered.
