Badlands B&W: Badlands National Park, September 2003

After the Show: Yellowstone National Park, September 2003 Echinus Geyser after an eruption. Prior to 1998, this geyser erupted at frequent intervals and was the only predicted geyser in Norris Geyser Basin. Now it erupts less frequently and more erratically reaching at most 60 feet in height. Echinus is the largest frequently active acid geyser in the world. Most of the thermal features at Norris Geyser Basin are acidic in nature, unlike the majority of geysers in Yellowstone, which are alkaline in nature.

During the Show: Yellowstone National Park, September 2003 We had to wait nearly two hours for the show to begin. But once it had started, we were treated to quite the show. Echinus Geyser, unlike other geysers like Old Faithful, doesn’t erupt in a continuous stream. Instead it erupted with an amazing amount of steam and bursts of water, which traveled several feet in the air before crashing back down into the water in the pool creating waves which radiated away from the geyser’s center. It was a fabulous display and well worth the wait.

Before the Show: Yellowstone National Park, September 2003 During this visit most of Norris Geyser Basin was off limits due to an increase in temperature. Only the path from the visitor center to Echinus Geyser was open. This was our view of Echinus Geyser when we arrived. We had read somewhere that when the pool was full it signaled that an eruption was about to occur. Seeing that the pool was almost full, we decided to wait. And wait. And wait. Tomorrow I’ll post a photo of the show we got for our wait.