{"id":2298,"date":"2017-06-25T15:03:05","date_gmt":"2017-06-25T19:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marksisco.com\/blog\/?p=2298"},"modified":"2017-06-25T15:07:55","modified_gmt":"2017-06-25T19:07:55","slug":"yellowstone-grand-prismatic-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/?p=2298","title":{"rendered":"Yellowstone Grand Prismatic Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are many iconic locations in Yellowstone, one of my favorite being Grand Prismatic Spring. \u00a0According to Wikipedia<\/span><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

The Grand Prismatic Spring<\/b> in Yellowstone National Park is the largest hot spring in the United States, and the third largest in the world,\u00a0<\/span>after Frying Pan Lake in New Zealand and Boiling Lake in Dominica. It is located in the Midway Geyser Basin.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Grand Prismatic Spring was noted by geologists working in the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871, and named by them for its striking coloration. Its colors match the rainbowdispersion of white light by an optical prism: red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The vivid colors in the spring are the result of microbial mats around the edges of the mineral-rich water. The mats produce colors ranging from green to red; the amount of color in the microbial mats depends on the ratio of chlorophyll to carotenoids and on the temperature gradient in the runoff. In the summer, the mats tend to be orange and red, whereas in the winter the mats are usually dark green. \u00a0The center of the pool is sterile due to extreme heat.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Many aerial views have been photographed over the years, as well as high angle photos from the hillside behind it. \u00a0This give the best insight into the size of Grand Prismatic. \u00a0On this particular visit, the hillside area was closed for nearby road construction. \u00a0This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. \u00a0Carl and I have photographed from above, but until this day we had never visited\u00a0the boardwalk at the spring itself.<\/p>\n

The colors and textures are unbelievable (literally), and the size of Grand Prismatic is difficult to capture or explain. \u00a0The trees on the hillside of the second image below are an estimated\u00a0mile away from where I am photographing. \u00a0The hot spring extends from my\u00a0standing position to within approximately 100-200 yards of the tree line! \u00a0This is ONE GI-NORMOUS POOL! \u00a0The first image captures approximately 200+ yards of calcified channels on the western side of the spring.<\/p>\n

\"Channels<\/a>

Channels – Grand Prismatic Spring<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Fluorescent<\/a>

Fluorescent – Grand Prismatic Spring<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are many iconic locations in Yellowstone, one of my favorite being Grand Prismatic Spring. \u00a0According to Wikipedia: The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park is the largest hot spring in the United States, and the third largest in the world,\u00a0after Frying Pan Lake in New Zealand and Boiling Lake in Dominica. It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,5,55,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2298"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2305,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298\/revisions\/2305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}