Yellowstone’s Grand Loop - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 329

Some geologists believe that Norris Geyser Basin, named after a former superintendent of Yellowstone, may be the hottest
place on Earth.
3. Norris Geyser Basin
According to geologists who have been monitoring the area for years, Norris Geyser Basin
is perhaps the hottest hot spot on Earth, and certainly one of the most geologically act-
ive. Puffs of steam rise from the ground like involuntary sighs all day long, and the basin
is richly endowed with active geysers: Dark Cavern, which erupts several times an hour;
the fan-shaped, silica-spraying Whirligig; and Steamboat, the world's tallest geyser, with
plumes of up to 380 feet—about three times higher than the eruptions of Old Faithful.
4. Virginia Cascade
A quick detour to the east leads to one-way Virginia Cascade Drive, which skirts the
60-foot waterfall that gives the road its name. A visit to the nearby willow meadows in the
quiet of early morning or late afternoon may yield a glimpse of elk or moose, which regu-
larly appear at the edge of the clearing.
5. Firehole Canyon Drive
Doubling back to Norris, the drive heads south to Madison, where the Grand Loop begins
to cut across the edge of the great Yellowstone Caldera—the collapsed remains of a cata-
clysmic eruption that blew the center of the present-day park high into the sky some
600,000 years ago. Nearly 50 miles long and 28 miles wide, the basin lies above a still-
churning core of molten rock. Its intense heat acts upon groundwater-filled fissures to cre-
ate Yellowstone's chorus of bubbling springs and hissing geysers, its restless repertoire of
fumaroles, spitting mud pots, and unearthly steaming craters.
Beginning just below Madison, Firehole Canyon Drive follows the twisting course of
the Firehole River for a distance of two miles. The sheer canyon walls rise to a height of
800feetabovetheriver.TheFireholetakesitsnamefromnaturallyoccurringJacuzziblasts
below the water's surface, which keep the river from freezing during the long Wyoming
winterandpermit geeseandduckstofindshelter herethroughthecoldest months.AtFire-
hole Falls the river plummets 40 feet, then races downstream over the black lava steps of
the Firehole Cascade, eventually carving a foamy path through a forest of lodgepole pine.