For updates, ask rangers on duty in the area or inquire at park visitor centers. Museum Overlook Rainbow colors, hissing steam and pungent odors combine to create a vista unique in Yellowstone. Porcelain Basin is open with hundreds of densely packed geothermal features in contrast to the more forested terrain of Back Basin, where features are more scattered and isolated. Overlook Parts of the whitish rock sheet before you pulsate from the pressure of steam and boiling water beneath them. A number of geysers and other features here have been born suddenly in small hydrothermal explosions.
Some features are ephemeral, their activity lasting a few hours, days or weeks.
The milky coloration of many of these pools is due to their saturation with opalescent silica minerals or clay. These publications are sold by the Yellowstone Association at the Norris Bookstore and in visitor centers throughout the park. Work Outdoors at GORP Jobs Click Here. All rights reserved.