Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Mystic Falls Trail starts here -
Click here
f
or details. There are free daily ranger-
led hikes to the falls at 9am.
MORNING GLORY POOL
A steamy favorite that's well worth the walk, beautiful Morning Glory Pool is named after the flower. Unfortu-
nately, the pool is slowly changing temperature and, therefore, color, due to the tons of trash thrown into the pool by
past visitors (the main access road to Old Faithful passed beside the pool until 1971). The refuse diminishes circula-
tion and accelerates heat loss. As the pool cools, orange bacteria spreads from its sides, replacing the gorgeous blue
tones. In 1950 park staff induced an eruption to empty and clean the spring, pulling out $86.27 in pennies, 76
handkerchiefs, several towels, socks, shirts and even women's underwear!
MIDWAY GEYSER BASIN
Five miles north of Old Faithful and 2 miles south of the Firehole Lake Dr entrance is
Midway Geyser Basin. The key sight here is the algae-tinged indigo waters of the
Grand
Prismatic Spring
. At 370ft wide and 121ft deep, it's the park's largest and deepest hot
spring. It's also probably the most beautiful single thermal feature in the park. Boardwalks
lead around the multicolored mist of the gorgeous pool and its spectacularly colored rain-
bow rings of algae.
For the most dramatic photos of Grand Prismatic Spring, drive south to Fairy Falls
Trailhead, walk for 1 mile, and then take a faint path up the side of the fire-burned ridge
(itself a lava deposit from the west rim of the caldera). From above, the spring looks like a
giant blue eye, weeping exquisite multicolored tears.
The spring drains into
Excelsior Pool
, a huge former geyser that blew itself out of ex-
istence in the 1880s with massive 300ft explosions of water. The last eruptions here were
in 1985, when the pool erupted almost continuously for 46 hours, before lulling itself back
into a deep sleep. The pool continually discharges an amazing 4000 gallons of boiling wa-
ter a minute into the Firehole River; according to T Scott Bryan's
The Geysers of Yellow-
stone,
that's enough to fill 300,000 automobile gas tanks every day. More water is ex-
pelled here in a single day than Old Faithful releases in two months. You can admire the
colorful yellow and orange runoff as you approach the basin over the bridge.
The features are linked by a 0.5-mile accessible boardwalk; budget about 30 minutes
here.
