Other geyser basins

We didn't have a chance to visit the minor geyser basins on either of the days that we went to Upper geyser basin so we headed back over in that area another day.  We started at the basin that has Great Fountain geyser and we happened to pull in there about 15 minutes before the time frame started of when it could erupt.  We decided to sit and wait for it.  At first Great Fountain didn't impress me-it was pretty small and it seemed to be petering out.  Then it exploded!  I'm glad we didn't leave.

I liked watching the waves of water make waterfalls over the edge of the terrace.

We could see another geyser, White Dome, in the distance (not that far) that had erupted while we were waiting for Great Fountain.  Someone told us that it erupts every 30 minutes.  After Great Fountain erupted we went over there, waited a few minutes and watched White Dome erupt.

We then headed to see the Grand Prismatic Spring at Midway geyser basin because Brian remembers seeing a huge colorful pool when we was a kid.  The parking lots in these areas are a joke.  Passengers get out of their cars before pulling in to the parking lot and then go wait for someone to leave and stand in the spot until their car arrives.  We got stuck in this parking lot for 20 minutes just waiting behind people one day so Brian decided to park along the road so we didn't waste another 20 minutes trying to park.

I loved all the colors in this geyser basin.  Grand Prismatic Spring was all steam covered so you could barely see the vibrant colors.  But there were colors elsewhere and interesting patterns.

We headed to Lower geyser basin and got to see two small geysers go off plus pretty pools and spewing mud.  It rained on us as we drove from Midway basin to here.  Here are Clepsydra geyser and Jet geyser.

After that we headed to Norris geyser basin where Steamboat geyser is.  We couldn't do the small loop because they were building new boardwalk so we skipped the small loop.  We decided to do the 2.6 mile loop but we were also trying to stay ahead of thunderstorm so we walked very quickly.  Luckily there wasn't too much to see.  Most of the pools were not so pretty and the geysers weren't doing anything.  I think you could skip Norris geyser basin.

This is Emerald Spring

Steamboat geyser

This is the most action we saw at Norris

We then drove up to see the terraces at Mammoth.  It poured rain the entire drive and entire time we were at the hot springs plus all the way back to our campground.  I think this was the day it rained for the longest period of time.  We did avoid the thunderstorm at Norris though!  The terraces were so disappointing.  Mom and Dad told me that they had changed but I didn't anticipate hardly finding any terraces at all!

Here is one terrace starting to form

This is what is left of Minerva Terrace.  Some of it is still running but there is no water in the white parts.  I'm not sure it was worth the drive up to Mammoth since it is quite the distance.