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Yellowstone: Expect the unexpected

Date published: 9/28/2002

AS I APPROACHED a dark, gaping hole in the Earth at Yellowstone National Park, an older woman peered into it and seemed not to notice me.

"It makes you feel so insignificant," she announced, never once taking her gaze off the noisy hole, where hot air jetted forth from far below.

"Yes," I replied, deciding it better to say something than ignore her, "and it gives me the feeling that I'm looking deep into the fiery engine that drives the planet."

It was an odd exchange with a stranger, but not nearly so odd as the thing we looked at, nor any of the thousands of other weird geothermal sites in Yellowstone.

When the park was originally established, it was because of these thermal fields. Here, in this corner of Wyoming and spilling over into neighboring Idaho and Montana, nature has put more evidence of the planet's inner workings than anywhere on Earth--some 10,000 sites in all.

To this day, scientists come here to study and ponder the meaning of the seemingly endless variety of geysers, spouts, fumaroles, mud pots, springs, pools, and assorted other places that afford an opportunity for the heated inner Earth to reach the surface in some form or other.

Tens of thousands of people flock here from around the world, drawn chiefly to the most famous of these sites, Old Faithful, so named for its more-or-less-regular and always exciting steam eruptions.

While you really can count on Old Faithful's spoutings, they are not so regular as clockwork nor are they--despite the fountain's reputation--nearly the highest in Yellowstone.

Of the two weeks I spent in and around the park, three or four days were spent almost exclusively on the thermal features, yet, when I came home, read up on them and watched a video, I was disappointed to learn I'd seen no more than a scant sampling. Most are contained within what are called geyser basins, grouped roughly toward the western side of Yellowstone.

Most, but by no means all--and it is those chance discoveries of other thermal sites, tucked into out-of-the-way parts elsewhere in the park, that I enjoyed most.

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Date published: 9/28/2002