West Thumb and Yellowstone Lake

West Thumb and Yellowstone Lake - July 23-24

Oh goody – More lakes, streams, paint pots, fumaroles and colorful springs.

Yellowstone Lake is the most prominent feature in the south east side of Yellowstone Park  At 131 sq mile area and 141 miles of shoreline, it is the largest lake at a high elevation in North America. - 7700 feet above sea level and the average depth is about 140 ft, with the maximum depth of 410 feet. Approaching the lake from the southwest on the south grand loop road, the first part of the lake that you reach is called West Thumb, a thumblike extension that has a geyser basin as a highlight with many springs and pools..

Thermal features extend out into the lake area, causing hot spots over which, ice will not form in the wintertime.

There is a shoreline vent, called ‘Fishing Cone’ because early mountain men described the ability to catch a trout in the lake, swing the pole around, dip it in the pool, and cook the fish without taking it off the line. In the spring and summer the cone is under water due to lake levels rising from the melting snow. When exposed, the cone’s average water temperature is right at a boiling 199 degrees.

Here is Sylvia standing in front of Big Cone.

The image below is of a pool called ‘Black Pool’.

It used to be really black. Lower water temperatures allowed thick mats of dark green and brown thermophiles to grow in the pool, causing it to appear black.  The water temperature rose in summer of 1991, killing the organisms. It also erupted that summer and several times the following winter. Black Pool is now a quiet and beautiful Blue Pool with the name 'Black Pool'.

Here is Abyss Pool, one of the deeper hot springs in Yellowstone. It descends 53 feet, and varies in color from turquoise blue to emerald green and various shades of brown. 

Oh yeah..!! This next photo reminds me - Sylvia promised that she would make spaghetti for dinner tonight…

You can’t tell it from these pictures, but it is actually pretty late in the afternoon when we took the pictures above. We drove further on up the lakeshore road, and ended up at Lake Lodge, in the ‘Lake Village’ section of the park, with the thought to stop in and have some dinner. – No spaghetti tonight…. Out in front of the lodge were a small herd of 8-10 bison lounging around, so I took a picture of them before we went in to eat

The Lodge is pretty neat, and mostly original from when it was built.

After dinner, the bison were just starting to move out for the night.  These particular bison were not too people wary, but all the signs around make most of the people bison wary. Several people had started walking down the path toward the lake, past the animals, when one of the bison decided to head across the trail that they were on.

The bison won the non-argument because the people came back to the lodge area.

We got into the car and I was able to park in an area where the bison would be walking right past us, so we managed to get some real close-up images of them as they walked past.

Sylvia loves to stare at the sunsets. Here is proof.

And here is a picture she took of it.

End of the day. We had to drive back about 60 miles to the RV Park in the dusk, then complete darkness. When it gets dark in Yellowstone with no moon visible, it is REALLY DARK.   Momma didn’t like that, but we made it back okay, with no further animal encounters..