Bison, Bears and Wolves, Oh My (We hope)!! - TR UPDATE!! 8-19-14 - Page 10 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Fire in the Hole
We left the Fountain Paint Pot lot and drove over to Firehole Lake Drive. This is a one way drive about 2 miles in length with pullouts and boardwalks at the geothermal features.
The first stop was Firehole Spring.
And then Surprise Pool
The spring overflows into White Creek.
Then we came to the Great Fountain Geyser
Then we came to the White Dome Geyser
Then we came to Tangled Creek
This area was covered in steam because of the hot water in Tangled Creek -
It was so pretty and quiet. This area has been in the news this summer because the ground temperatures have become so hot that it actually melted the blacktop and they had to close the road to allow for repairs.
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Midway Geyser Basin
I was really looking forward to visiting this area - since it is home to the Grand Prismatic Spring. This is one of trail systems that does not have a trail map. Good thing I took a photo of the map.
Crossing the Firehole River to the Geyser Basin
First stop - the Opal Pool
Then off to the Grand Prismatic Spring
I wish the temperatures would have risen enough to remove the steam so that you could see the blue areas of the spring.
This spring is the largest spring in Yellowstone and one of the most beautiful. It was also in the news recently - because a man visiting the park crashed his drone into the spring... and the drone sank into the spring. BTW - its illegal to fly drones in National Parks. When I heard about this I wanted to cry... sheer stupidity may destroy our beautiful places. I hope they charge the man and make him pay the $ to recover his "toy" so that it doesn't permanently damage the spring. Did camera-equipped drone crash into Yellowstone's largest hot spring? - LA Times
Last stop on the tour was Excelsior Geyser. This was a very very interesting feature. It discharges between 4,000-5,000 gallons of very hot (199 degree F) water from the crater into the Firehole River. Back in the late 1800s this was a very active geyser that erupted frequently. Most eruptions were more than 100 feet in height, some exceeding 300 ft. These powerful eruptions are believed to have damaged the geyser's internal plumbing and it stopped erupting. Now it is considered a hot spring and not a geyser. It has had to period of small eruptions - one in 1986 and another in the mid-2000s. This area was SO beautiful!!
See what I mean about all the steam?
After finishing our walk through the Midway Geyser Basin - we decided to head back toward's Old Faithful - and stopped at the Biscuit Geyser Basin on the way.
Wonderful photos today. GRRRRR to that guy with the drone! I hope they charge him for fishing out the drone as well, but it sounds to me like he'll probably try to sue the park because the geyser took his toy. "My drone fell in the spring and I want it back." Idiot!
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Biscuit Basin
I found a few more photos from the Middle Geyser Basin and the Fountain Paint Pots -
Me with Clypsedra Geyser
On the Firehole Road - near the Hot Cascades
Middle Geyser Basin at the Firehole River
At the Grand Prismatic Spring
Algal Mat of the Grand Prismatic Spring
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There are 3 "basins" at Old Faithful - Biscuit Basin, Black Sand Basin and Old Faithful area.
We decided we wanted to see as many of these as we could - so we started with the furthest away - but closest to the road as we drove back toward the Inn - Biscuit Basin. Biscuit Basin is named for the "biscuit" formations that used to surround the Sapphire Pool. Following the 1959 earthquake, Sapphire Pool erupted and the biscuits were blown away and have never reformed.
This basin is also on the Firehole River and you cross the river from the parking lot.
First stop - and probably my favorite hot spring in the whole park - Sapphire Pool
Sapphire Pool last erupted in 1991.
While we were walking, we heard people cheering - and saw this -
Jewel Geyser - which erupts every 7-10 minutes. We would see it again, much closer.
Another shot of Sapphire Pool
More bacterial mats in one of the streams draining from Sapphire pool. Told ya - Biology geek.
Biscuit Basin is truly down in a basin - and up on the hill I caught sight of a bright yellow patch of aspen trees - they were so yellow it looked artificial
The next geyser on the trail had me giggling like a school girl when I posted a photo of it to Facebook and said "I found the Black Pearl - now where is Captain Jack?" - Black Pearl Geyser.
Staying with the ocean theme - Shell Spring
And not to be out done - Jewel Geyser up close! I actually got a little wet while I was taking pictures.
And one more algal mat up close - you can see the change from yellow to green, meaning a change in species of alga in response to a change in water temperature.
After our trek through the Biscuit basin - we drove back to the Inn, parked the car and began our walk through the Old Faithful area.
Oh wow, you really are bringing back such great memories, but I also can't get over the difference between some of your photos and ours from when we were there. The Grand Prismatic Spring is one example - I guess that's the effect you were talking about earlier, where because of the steam, sometimes the colours aren't as stunning.
On that subject, I had to go back and double check the time of year you were visiting, as I was sure it was September and literally you were visiting less than two weeks later than we did, yet I can't get over the difference in the weather! I guess when they were telling us on about 9 or 10 September that it was unseasonably warm (it was in the 70s and very pleasant), they were certainly right!
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I guess when they were telling us on about 9 or 10 September that it was unseasonably warm (it was in the 70s and very pleasant), they were certainly right! 
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