The story behind the photo: This pre-work morning hike
started at the back end of the Upper Geyser Basin and worked toward the
Old Faithful area. The morning was beautiful, and the sun was bright.
This helped reduce the morning steam. So, the shots from that day
were pretty crisp. Even so, one can see from Giant Geyser on the
far right that a lot of heat was coming from its cone. It is a little
hard for those unfamiliar with this geyser group to tell, but there are
actually four geysers in this group. While none have a cone as distinctive
as Giant, they are there. Each geyser has its own personality, and
I think it is that diverse quality of geysers that make so many people
in Yellowstone "geyser watchers." That is, there are people in the
Lamar Valley who do nothing but look for wolves and other wildlife, and
there are people, especially in the Upper Geyser Basin and at Old Faithful
especially who do nothing but watch geysers. For those who love geysers,
each geyser's own unique personality, quirkiness, and volatility has the
same special attraction for them as the personality, quirkiness, etc. that
wildlife has for those who do nothing but look for that. As for me,
I tended to be more of an earth watcher myself because I found that I did
not need to be one more person crowding in on animals. This is not
to be unfair to the true "animal-watcher" who takes the utmost care not
to disturb the wildlife, but even so the feeling tended to be there.
I felt more of a heartstring toward that which could never speak back.
But, in the geysers, sometimes you did get the sense that it was speaking
back. Something might have been communicated from these geysers to
me (something more than mere platitudes and cliches), but I haven't nearly
grasped the language nor taken enough time to pursue those grounds.
Nevertheless, I still had that sense that something was talking to me--looking
for conversation.
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