Old Faithful

Old Faithful about to blow sky high. My photo.

OLD FAITHFUL.

There really isn't an option of talking about Wyoming without talking about Yellowstone and Old Faithful, especially because most people think Yellowstone is in Montana. Yeah, like 5 minutes of it (it's a sore spot for Wyomingites).

Members of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition spotted Old Faithful on September 18, 1870 (of course, Native Americans in the area had long been aware of Old Faithful).







Nathaniel P. Langford wrote an account of the expedition:

"It spouted at regular intervals nine times during our stay, the columns of boiling water being thrown from ninety to one hundred and twenty-five feet at each discharge, which lasted from fifteen to twenty minutes. We gave it the name of 'Old Faithful.'"

In another part of Langford's diary, he described the complete lack of understanding by white folks of the delicate ecosystem of geysers. Old Faithful was sometimes used as a laundry in the early days:

"Old Faithful is sometimes degraded by being made a laundry. Garments placed in the crater during quiescence are ejected thoroughly washed when the eruption takes place." Oh, boy. When Americans like something, we like it to death. By the way, geysers are a spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. As a fairly rare phenomenon, the formation of geysers is due to particular hydrogeological conditions that exist only in a few places on Earth, and Yellowstone is unique even within that small group. There's something about watching it erupt that makes you want to squeal out loud. I've never been able to take a good video, myself, as I'm always too much in awe when it goes. The video on Old Faithful's Wikipedia page is actually one of the best I've ever seen: Old Faithful erupting.  If you want to see it live, the National Park Service live streams it here: Old Faithful Live Stream. After the 1959 earthquake in the region, Old Faithful has decreased in both how high it gets and how often it erupts (about one less eruption a day). The decrease has been linked to a change in how Old Faithful is connected to the thermal vents underneath the surface. Take a look at my post on Hot Spots for more info. We try to go up at least once a year. The trip is a nice one, though if you're pulling a trailer make sure you have the right braking system, as the road leading up to the park is pretty windy, especially if you're coming from the south. Make sure you call ahead and find out about road closures, as they regularly have to close roads to the the constantly changing nature of the park. One year part of the road leading out the park actually melted as a heat vent made its way to the surface. Yes, you read that right. The asphalt MELTED. Wish I had gotten a picture. Oh, and if you are planning a trip, make sure you plan far ahead for accomodations. If you want to stay in any of the lodges in the park, I suggest booking a year out. If you want to camp at any of the Yellowstone camping sites, then at least 3 months, or longer if you're going in June, July, or August. Personally, I love September in Yellowstone. It's not usually too cold to camp yet, and a good deal of the tourists are gone, but the restaurants are still open. Make sure you hit Paint Pot, though. It's probably my favorite place in the park. But don't tell Old Faithful.

Along WY-28 and WY-131

One of my favorite roads is WY-28, and one of my favorite places is Sinks Canyon, just off WY-28 near Lander. The middle fork of the Popo Agie River(*Puh - Po Shuh) "sinks" into a limestone cavern and then reappears on the other side of the ridge. It can take water up to two hours to make the journey through the cavern. It's a incredible place.

Not for those without good walking shoes or agility, however. There's a bit of scrambling up and down the enormous rocks that were left there from the last Ice Age. The ice scraping down the canyon exposed the deeply buried Madison Limestone Formation and then billions of gallons of water from the melting glaciers flowed into the soft rock, creating the underground passages.

The Sinks are still slowly eroding from current of the river, but haven't changed much over the past hundred years. Historic photos from the early 20th century show the cavern to be almost identical to how it looks today. Which is kinda cool, geological speaking. :)

Get a sandwich at The Breadboard in town while you're at it. I highly recommend the Hot Pastrami.

Red Canyon: remember, red usually mean IRON!

*How Do You Pronounce Popo Agie?

I went to Peru!

I do want to talk about our travels to other places. Hope that's Ok. :)

Our travels mix geology and anthropology so seamlessly, it's hard to talk about them separately. But to shorten each post, I'll give it a whirl:

Peru is smack in the middle of the Andes. Because of this geography, one side is Amazon Rainforest, and the western side is mostly desert (Google "rainshadow"). I was on the western side for my recent trip, so the similarities between where I visited and southwest Wyoming were striking.

The rocks of Peru are amazing. Andesite, one of the fundamental types of igneous rocks (made from magma and lava), was first understood by studying the rocks of the Andes. The geological of the Andes is similar to the Cascades in Washington State, but different because of the availability of different elements and minerals in the crust there.

Here are a few photos of both landscape and rocks I found during my time in Lima, Cusco, and at Machu Pichu. I took LOTS of pictures, more than I can possibly share.

And yes, I love taking pictures of rocks.

PS - The food is AMAZING. The original home of the potato!