“see it before it fades forever”
The pool was named by Mrs E. N. McGowan, wife of Assistant Park Superintendent, Charles McGowan in 1883. She called it "Convolutus", the Latin name for the morning glory flower, which the spring resembles. By 1889, the name Morning Glory Pool had become common usage in the park. Many early guidebooks called this feature Morning Glory Spring. Long a favored destination for park visitors, Morning Glory Pool was named in the 1880s for its remarkable likeness to its namesake flower. However, this beautiful pool has fallen victim to vandalism. People have thrown literally tons of coins, trash, rocks, and logs into the pool. Much of the debris subsequently became embedded in the sides and vent of the spring, affecting water circulation and accelerating the loss of thermal energy. Through the years Morning Glory's appearance has changed as its temperature dropped. Orange and yellow bacteria that formerly colored only the periphery of the spring now spread toward its center. Several entryways have been clogged due to objects being thrown in by tourists, reducing the hot water supply, and in turn altering the overall appearance of the pool. Several attempts by park officials to artificially induce eruptions to clear the pool of debris and clear blocked entryways have been met with mixed results. An interpretive sign, placed near the pool by the park service, discusses the damage caused by ignorance and vandalism and suggests that Morning Glory is becoming a "Faded Glory." - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Glory_Pool)
If your trying to get a photo of this go in the middle of the day otherwise there will be shadows in the pool as the boardwalk is literally a foot away on 3 sides of it!
Very beautiful pool! I would highly recommend taking the trail head to it across the street from the Biscuit Basin parking lot entrance. It is a nice, fairly easy trail with a lot less people and you can see several other neat springs on the way to Morning Glory. It roughly took an hour roundtrip.
saw this in 2008 when in US - amazing and would be tragic if this is lost to future generations due to man made damage rather that natural thermal damage. Are there any images that show how the colours have changed?
It's a rather long walk, 2.8 miles out to it. There are no drinking water access either so make sure you bring some along. There is an outhouse style restroom at the end as well but no water access.
But the pool is absolutely gorgeous even more so now that Beauty and Chromatic pools have long faded and Grand Prismatic difficult to view. On the way back you can see newly formed pools of beautiful blues that hopefully get added to the route soon. I found it worth the walk out and back.
Why would people do that? So sad.
can't they clean it out and hopefully save it?
So sad..
The most beautiful in Yellowstone.
Morning Glory is just lovely, and I do recommend going midday to see the most colors. The walk from Old Faithful to MG is about 1.5 miles, and I walked it on a hot day. It was worth it, but take some water. There were lots of scenic views and benches along the path to the geyser. I think riding a bike would have been fun, except you can't take a bike on the boardwalk paths. So look at a map and decide if you want to do that or not.
Very beautiful. Worth the walk from Old Faithful.
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Morning Glory Pool
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