A Wonderland of Waterfalls, Geysers and Hot Springs

  As the above title suggests, Yellowstone National Park is a veritable wonderland, a truly unique landscape. Even back in the pioneer days, when there was no such thing as a national park, fur trappers, mountain men, miners and other people who were passing through this area saw its potential. They thought it should be preserved for future generations to enjoy. 
  Probably the most photographed places in Yellowstone are Old Faithful Geyser, the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, Grand Prismatic Spring and Morning Glory Pool.  
Morning Glory Pool is stunning in the color variation, with water colors fading from clear to yellow to orange to green to light blue to royal blue to deep blue. It almost looks like something a child with a vivid imagination would draw in his or her coloring book. The majority of the attractions in the park are on the north and west sides, but that's not to say the rest of the park does not have things to see. I think my favorite spot is Dragon's Mouth Spring., a hot spring that emanates from an opening in the side of a small bluff. When the water comes out of the opening, it really does sound like a dragon exhaling! 
   The inner workings of the park's most famous feature, Old Faithful Geyser, were altered about a decade ago by an earthquake, so it no longer erupts every 56 minutes, now it is every 91 minutes. The entrance road to the Old Faithful area was rebuilt a few years ago and there is now an overpass, with exit and entrance ramps, where it meets the main "Figure 8" road of the park. I realize that this area is extremely congested, but an overpass looks completely out of place in a national park. Personally, I would rather see traffic lights there than an overpass. Traffic lights are not as intrusive to the landscape as an overpass with its accompanying ramps are and the current setup means that a bigger area had to be paved. 
  Just to the north of Old Faithful Geyser, there is a footbridge over the Firehole River and then the trail leads to Geyser Hill, which literally abounds with geysers! In the areas were geysers proliferate, there are boardwalks leading around the geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, 
or boiling mudpots. 
  The Firehole River is aptly named. Since it flows through, and past, numerous geyser basins, full of geothermal activity, it contains very warm water. The water temperatures in the river have been measured as high as 86 degrees and this is in a land that mostly has coldwater streams. The Firehole River is 21 miles long. It joins the Gibbon River several miles north of Old Faithful. This confluence creates the Madison River. The Madison River, in turn, merges with the 
Jefferson River near the town of Three Forks, Montana to create the Missouri River, at least in name. The Missouri Rivers actually begins in the Centennial Mountains, on the Montana/Idaho 
border at Brower's Spring. It is initially known as Hellroaring Creek, then Red Rock River, then Beaverhead River, then Jefferson River, before taking the name "Missouri" at Three Forks.