This is our 40th year to visit Yellowstone. In all those years we have heard about Steamboat Geyser, the world’s tallest currently active geyser. It is in Norris Geyser Basin. I was resigned to never see it during a major eruption because no one has been able to predict when it will erupt and it can be years between eruptions. Its more recent eruptions have been October 22, 2003, May 23, 2005, July 31, 2013, and September 3, 2014. We actually missed the main eruption this time but we saw it this morning in the steam phase and I got it!! The steam was over 300 feet high! I use a movie camera that produces an image that is shaped like:
It is really hard to do justice to this geyser in photos. It is difficult to visualize the steam billowing up without seeing it in person or in a movie. But I will give it a try.
Some of the people that use the type of movie camera I have make verticals for museum installations and other non-TV or movie purposes.
I tried putting my camera on its side to see what I could get. Here are the results:
Our photos are available at www.vernelehmberg.com. Watch for an upcoming sale soon.
The actual eruption happened between 10:30 and 11:00 pm on the night of Sept 3 so I don’t think anyone got to see it very well. You wouldn’t believe how impressive the steam phase was. We got there early in the morning before the wind came up and it was well over 300 feet high.
Oh man! I had not heard about it erupting again. Glad that you got to see the steam phase at least.