One of the most popular spots in Yellowstone National Park is the Midway Geyser Basin. It is so popular that if you arrive after about 10:00 (earlier in the summer!) you could wait for hours just to get a place to park.

With that in mind, Kathy and I decided to make a non-peak visit to the basin, early (-ish) one morning (my first photo was taken just before 8:00. Unfortunately that meant that instead of dealing with bunches of crowds, we ended up dealing with bunches of steam. As it works, the bigger the difference between the air temperature and the springs, the more chance for steam and fog.

We knew this going in and decided that seeing it, even in less than ideal conditions, was better than dealing with huge crowds. It was still quite dramatic, and even though I didn’t get the “classic” Grand Prismatic Spring” shot (in reality very few people do get the classic shot, and to get it you kinda have to be there in perfect conditions, preferably in an airplane!), we were happy to have gotten there on a nice day with plenty of sunshine to show off the rainbow of colors.

After our morning visit to Midway Geyser Basin we headed on down the road to Fountain Paint Pots, another popular spot. That lot was starting to fill up when we got there, and by the time we got back to Midway the traffic was already starting to line up for the parking lot. But that’s a story for another day. The lesson though is that timing is everything!