The southernmost collection of geysers and hot springs of the Yellowstone National Park can be found on the West Thumb Geyser Basin, right on the western shore of the large Yellowstone Lake. On our way from the Grand Teton National Park towards our accommodation at Old Faithful, we passed the junction of West Thumb. Here, the ring road branches off to the north along the Yellowstone Lake along Fishing Bridge to the Canyon Village. We had a lot of time, so we took off for a short walk along the Geyser Basin.
As soon as we were on the wooden paths, the sulfur smell of the hot springs hit us. From a distance, we where attracted by the steam clouds in the north of the Geyser Basin and we came directly to one of the highlights of this region: Abyss Pool is a 53 feet deep and over 172°F hot spring. The Hot pool has turquoise colors and we were immediately taken by these colors in the nature of Yellowstone!
Right next to it is a second pool which is called Black Pool, but has the same turquoise color as Abyss Pool. In former decades it used to be black.
Here, the path runs directly over the drain so that we could see the typical color spectra of the hot springs, from red to yellow to green. Different microorganisms live in temperatures of 155°F to 120°F and therefore settle in the drains of the hot springs.
This was the best start into Yellowstone! We were overwhelmed by the color of the Yellowstone National Park and that after a few hours in this nature paradise!
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