Yellowstone National Park: Midway Geyser Basin

On By nationalparkswithtIn Wyoming2 Comments
Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!

Wyoming 2023 Trip➤

In September of 2023, my husband and I set out to explore some National Park units in the state of Wyoming. We visited Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park, The John D. Rockefeller Parkway, and Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. In Yellowstone National Park, we visited the Midway Geyser Basin.

Yellowstone National Park➤

President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law in 1872. This created America’s (and the world’s) first National Park. The US Army managed the park from the late 1800s through 1916 when the National Park Service was created.

The park sits on top of a massive super volcano. As a result, over half of the worlds geysers and geothermal features reside in Yellowstone. It’s also famous for being home to hundreds of animal species, including bears, wolves, bison, elk and antelope. One of our guides compared touring Yellowstone’s Valleys to taking an African Safari.

This park is huge at 3500 square miles in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Divided into two large loops, the park road takes visitors to the main sites. The Lower Loop Road is 96 miles while the Upper Loop is 142 miles.

Midway Geyser Basin➤

After hiking down from the Grand Prismatic Overlook, we continued around the loop road to get a look at the enormous spring from boardwalk level. Midway Geyser Basin stretches along a mile of the Firehole River. As we crossed the river to enter the boardwalk, we saw steaming runoff from the springs emptying into the river.

Midway Geyser Basin contains two of Yellowstone’s largest springs even though the basin itself is relatively small. The Grand Prismatic Spring and the Excelsior Geyser draw the crowds to the winding boardwalk trail. Midway also houses the smaller Opal and Turquoise Pools.

Once the largest geyser in the world, Excelsior witnessed major eruptions during the 1880s, reaching up to 300 feet in height. However, these violent eruptions formed a jagged crater and damaged its lining, leading to gas leakage and the loss of thermal energy. It went dormant by 1890, relegated to hot spring status.

Excelsior erupted again in 1985, continuously for over two days, but has since been dormant. Since its active phase in the 1880s, Excelsior has become a productive thermal spring, currently discharging 4050 gallons of water per minute. Within its crater, numerous vents boil and churn the water, enveloping it in a dense layer of steam.

Yellowstone Posts➤

Location: Grand Loop Road, Wyoming
Designation: National Park
Date designated/established: March 1, 1872
Date of my visit: September 23, 2023