Blue Star Spring, Yellowstone

The geysers at Yellowstone get the lion's share of the attention -- and rightly so. A column of superheated water shooting out of the ground is usually in the domain of the SciFi Channel original movie, so to see it in real life with no subpar CGI effects is a real treat. But the real beauty of Yellowstone can be found in the hot springs. The colors and forms that water, bacteria, and algae compose are much more artistic and photogenic than the occasional spurt of water.

This is the Blue Star Spring in the Upper Geyser Basin -- the basin that Old Faithful is in. It's a hot one, hence the blue water that's even too hot for the bacteria. And it has a wonderful white scalloped ledge of geyserite, formed by the silica precipitating out of the hot water. This looks like it could almost be an aerial shot from the coastline of an Aegean island.

Trip:

Yellowstone 09