This was an evening to remember for The Wild Images Team. A very occurrence happened here. Not the eruption of Beehive Geyser itself, but rather when it happened: just minutes before the sun set over the distant ridges. How rare is this situation? That requires an understanding of Beehive Geyser, one of the tallest geysers in the world. While it is a regular erupting geyser, it erupts only once per day at most. The time of the eruption is just as likely to be overnight as it is to be during the day, let alone at the moment of sunset. A simple probability calculation will determine the likelihood of this occurring. The moment of sunset, that is the fifteen minutes leading up to sunset, is one quarter of an hour, or about 25%. Then it has to be the correct hour of the day, so divide this by the number of hours in a day, or twenty four. The result is approximately 1%, or just one out of a hundred. Given that the high altitude summer seasons of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming are about 100 days a year, this exact situation should occur on average about once an entire summer season! This was a very special moment. So special that a breathtaking sister image captured moments before this is available for purchase in our store. Why is it important that the eruption happened just before sunset? The size of the rainbow, of course. Since rainbows occur by the reflection of sunlight through the back end of a small droplet of water, the lower the sun is in the sky, the higher the droplets of water can be that still are able to reflect the sunlight. So a lower sun relative to the horizon, closer to sunrise or sunset, will always produce the largest rainbows. So why did it need to be sunset and not sunrise? Its all about the viewpoint, and the direction of the prevailing winds. To capture the geyser at sunrise would require to be on the other side of it, which is almost always the direction that the steam is blown, which will result in a steamy photo with little texture detail. Furthermore, the sunrises over a ridge that sits near the location of the eruption, such that by the time it rises, it is already higher in the sky. Beehive Geyser is found on Geyser Hill, a section that rises above even the Upper Geyser Basin, a location that has the highest concentration of geysers in the world, including the most famous geyser in the world, Old Faithful Geyser, an image of which is also available for purchase in our store, captured on a different day in a different season. Actually, the start of the eruption of Beehive Geyser as seen in the image above occurred simultaneously with the eruption of Old Faithful Geyser this night, and close inspection of the background will show the steam remaining on the small hill of Old Faithful, in the background between the jet of water from Beehive Geyser and the rainbow. The Wild Images Team even captured a few images of the two erupting together that we may post on the blog at a future date. We weren’t alone there, but not many were there that evening. The small crowd that happened to be there to witness this particular eruption can be seen gathered below the massive rainbow in this previous blog entry. Beehive Geyser was given its name by the shape of its siliceous sinter cone that the eruption emanates from, which resembles the shape of the old wicker beehive, known as a skep, that beekeepers used before the development of the Langstroth beehive. The height of the sinter cone of Beehive Geyser is about 4 feet. Meanwhile, its eruption regularly reaches 200 feet in height due the water being passed through its sinter cone like a nozzle, yet as can be seen in the above photo, the rainbow is itself is rivaling the height of the geyser. Both of their tops are much higher than as seen in this image, even though it was taken using a ninety degree wide angle lens, that is how massive everything was this night. We will never forget it! The Wild Images Team has captured many other photos in Yellowstone National Park including a Beehive Geyser eruption with a massive rainbow, the world famous Old Faithful Geyser with water textures, a towering Grand Geyser pause burst eruption, a sunset Castle Geyser eruption with a bright rainbow, an afternoon Riverside Geyser eruption with a rainbow, an early morning Lion Geyser eruption with a rainbow, a very difficult to catch Oblong Geyser blue burst eruption, the extremely powerful Artemisia Geyser eruption with deep bursts, the very moment of waves from a Great Fountain Geyser initial eruption, an iconic White Dome Geyser eruption at sunset, the large bursts of a Fountain Geyser eruption in steam, the delicate red light on a Grotto Fountain Geyser eruption at sunset, the defining moment of a Rocket Geyser eruption at sunset, the extremely brief Aurum Geyser eruption with colors, a view through a Cliff Geyser eruption of Black Sand Basin, the colorful patterns of bacterial mats in Midway Geyser Basin, the changing conditions that cause a rainbow to parallel the Snow Lodge, the Biscuit Basin duo of Black Diamond Pool and Opal Pool, the colorfully pock marked waterways of the erupting Blood Geyser, the active steppes of the Mineral Terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs, the distant double rainbow over the Lewis River Canyon, the before eruption reflections of sunset over the terraces of Great Fountain Geyser, the deep colors of sky reflections over Beauty Pool, the thermally induced sunset light filters through the steamy trees, the intense moment of mammatus clouds over the Firehole River, the very early morning fog surrounding Lower Yellowstone Falls, the runoff created reflections over the colorful runoff pan of Constant Geyser, the unworldly terrain of the extensive Porcelain Geyser Basin in Norris, the deeply hued steam over colorful bacterial mat reflections of Grand Prismatic Spring, the contrast of runoff channels surrounding the blue superheated water of Sapphire Pool, differing wave patterns created by the colorful submerged Fishing Cone Geyser, the strong green created by the record depths of mysterious Abyss Pool, the moment the full moon rises over the Grant Village Lakehouse, the cloud symmetry of a sunset reflection over a calm Yellowstone Lake, and moments earlier with a cloud shelf reflection over a calm Yellowstone Lake, each of which are available for sale in our store. Blog posts from Yellowstone National Park have documented the Old Faithful Geyser eruptions, the steamy Oblong Geyser eruptions, the deep drain Uncertain Geyser eruptions, the steep crater Depression Geyser eruptions, the amphitheater Grand Geyser eruptions, the impressive Fan and Mortar Geyser eruptions, the very quick Aurum Geyser eruptions, the rooster tail Whirligig Geyser eruptions, the series type Lion Geyser eruptions, the tall grotto White Dome Geyser eruptions, the frequent Sawmill Geyser eruptions, the double cone Atomizer Geyser eruptions, the nozzled Beehive Geyser eruptions, the cratered Fountain Geyser eruptions, the deep pool Artemisia Geyser eruptions, the playful Vixen Geyser eruptions, the scenic Riverside Geyser eruptions, the very rare Ledge Geyser eruptions from above, the very rare Ledge Geyser eruptions from below, the gurgling Tilt’s Baby Geyser eruptions, the bursts of Great Fountain Geyser eruptions, the hidden Dome Geyser eruptions, the tilted Daisy Geyser eruptions, the remote Pink Cone Geyser eruptions, the long Castle Geyser eruption water phases, the loud Castle Geyser eruption steam phases, the stark Constant Geyser eruptions, the rim wall Cliff Geyser eruptions, the initiation from Grotto Fountain Geyser eruptions, the continuation of Grotto Geyser eruptions, the defining moment of Rocket Geyser eruptions, the marathon Spa Geyser eruptions, the blue waters of a Spouter Geyser eruption, the isolated Artist Paint Pots throwing mud, the little seen intricate burst of a mud volcano, a view of a dozen visitors under a Beehive Geyser rainbow, the eruption through numerous vents of Fan and Mortar Geysers, the enormous amount of water through the runoff channels of Excelsior Geyser, the otherworldly view of cloudy blue runoff pools in the Porcelain Basin, the moment that a large bison bull rolled in his claimed dirt pile, the rule for the right of way wildlife, the high altitudes where a large raven that perches over the Dunraven Pass, the the day that a phoenix streaked across the backcountry sky, the trail from Grant Village that crosses over this suspended bridge, The Wild Images Team in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, our Photographer Jeremy Robinson shadowed in Morning Glory Pool, and The Wild Images Team Travel Gnome at the Yellowstone National Park entrance sign.
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