The story behind the photo: Almost always when working
the early morning split shift at Hamilton Stores, I slept through the afternoon
break. However, this rare exception, I decided to go out to the West
Thumb Geyser Basin, 3 miles north of where I worked in Grant Village, to
take notes on all these familiar thermal features (familiar to me anyhow)
and to take pictures. One of the best shots that I took was this
shot of the deep blue Abyss Pool. Abyss is one of the deepest thermal
features in the park, and the deep blue color is evidence that the feature
is very hot. In 1991, a shift in thermal activity occured at West
Thumb, and this part of the basin became very active. Any algae on
the pool was killed, and much of the 1990s this pool spouted up lots of
water and was usually too steamy for good photographs. In 1998, however,
the waters here were relatively calm. This allowed me the opportunity
for a great photograph. As often was the case, I got very low to
the ground to take this photograph. In fact, I was lying down on
the boardwalk to get this shot. The blue in the background is Yellowstone
Lake. The thin crust of the earth looks more lunar. The dead
trees are evidence of a change in thermal activity. The boardwalk
on the upper part of the photograph runs between this pool and the equally
beautiful Black Pool. West Thumb is home to some of the most amazing
occurences in my life, but generally most of these occurences happened
when this beauty was invisible to my eyes in the dark of night.
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