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Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National
Park, Wyoming
Grand Prismatic Spring is called so mainly because
of the aerial view of it- from above, you can see a nearly complete rainbow of
colors from blue to red. I'm told by park personnel that you can get a
pretty good view of that effect by hiking up the hills behind it, which we
unfortunately did not have time to do. Even from the ground, though, it's
amazing. The actual spring is behind the far walkway- the foreground is
just drainage from it. The 3D effect is great up to the walkway, but
suffers a bit in the background because the steam from the spring changed.
However, if you can stabilize on the ground in front of the walkway, then jump
the the dead trees on the hillside (from the 1988 fire), you can maintain the
effect and consider the changing steam an artifact of Yellowstone's dynamism.
The foreground area itself is interesting, as the water draining from the spring
is hot, but cooling down as it flows away from the spring. It has built up
mineral deposits forming mini-steppes, and algae and bacterial mattes have
covered it in color.
©2003, Jeffrey L. Cooper
