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by Muchmor
Belleville, Ontario
October 30, 2003
Back Basin. This area is like entering another planet. The landscape is unreal, with spouts of steam emerging all over the place, gurgling and bubbling going on and you half expect a dinosaur to come plodding in from the horizon. Again you follow a boardwalk which is approx 1.5 miles from which you will encounter geysers such as Steamboat Geyser. This one is just along from the entrance to this walk and almost constantly steams and sputters. We though that we were witnessing it erupt, as whilst we were there is spouted water & steam approx 15 feet in the air for some minutes, however the guide book says that Steamboat is the world’s largest geyser erupting some 380 feet high, but has many minor eruptions, which is obviously what we saw, impressive though it was. Another geyser is Echinus, which was constantly steaming and bubbling. There is the rather amusingly called Puff and Stuff Geyser, which gurgles noisily away puffing out steam is short blasts. Another amusing one is Pork Chop geyser, but this one doesn’t do very much other than steam. It gets its name from its shape, which was created when it exploded in the 1980’s leaving boulders all round it. There are also some pools here such as Green Dragon Spring which has three vents, Black Pit Spring which almost fizzes rather than bubbling and Emerald Spring which is a steaming green pool. There are many other geysers and pools in this area and it is well worth visiting.
The other side of this area is Porcelain Basin, again this resembles another planet and has many geysers and pools. Some of the main ones to look out for are Dark Cavern Geyser which erupts frequently throughout the day to about 20 feet, Fireball Geyser which is a small spitting geyser, Pinwheel Geyser, which splutters all the time, and Blue geyser which again spouts almost constantly. Another attraction of this area is Vermillion Springs which is basically a hillside full of steaming and bubbling geysers and springs. They are amazing colours such as yellow, red and orange.
This whole area is definitely worth a visit and you need to allow plenty of time as the whole area is about a three mile walk, and of course you are stopping often to view the scenery.
From journal Yellowstone Treasures