Pop Places IRL: Crisis Caverns

Hey Poptropicans, and welcome to a new series called “Pop Places IRL”! Here, you’ll be taken through a Poptropica island… but side-by-side with scenes in real life (“IRL”). You know, like the reality that exists outside of the internet?

Anyway. To kick off the series, our first tour will be of the first island that debuted on Poptropica Worlds: Crisis Caverns Island. (Check out our guide here!)

Caldera State Park, the fictional area where this island takes place, is inspired by a real-life location in Wyoming, USA: Yellowstone National Park, which is centered around North America’s largest caldera, or supervolcano. Try not to get blown up!

photo: National Park Service (nps.gov)

One of the first places you’ll find on Crisis Caverns is the Visitor’s Center, which is full of displays about wildlife. But did you know that the design of the building is modeled after Yellowstone’s Old Faithful Inn?

photo: Old Faithful Inn (yellowstonegate.com)

Wander a bit further and you’ll find the wax pots. They’re not very exciting on Poptropica, considering there’s no movement, but if you visit the fountain paint pots at Yellowstone, you’ll find them constantly bubbling from the ground.

gif: fountain paint pots (ccortes182.wixsite.com)

Head right and you’ll find the termite rocks. You won’t find these in Yellowstone, but you can see mound-building termites in Africa, Australia, and South America.

photo: termite mounds in the Democratic Republic of Congo (bbc.com)

Just past the termite rocks is Old Reliable — the name itself is inspired by Yellowstone’s most predictable geyser, Old Faithful. Poptropica’s version is hardly a showstopper, but if you wait for the eruptions IRL, Old Faithful can really blow!

gif: Old Faithful (giphy.com)

On Crisis Caverns, we get to dive into some red-hot magma chambers. That probably wouldn’t go over so well IRL, but we can get glimpses of lava (magma at the surface) flowing out from underground.

This park tour wouldn’t be complete without some cute animals, and what could be grander than this great American bison in the Visitor’s Center? At Yellowstone, it’s even better: the park is home to thousands of bison that all roam freely.

gif: bison in Yellowstone (giphy.com)

The Visitor’s Center also offers a display of an elk, an animal that also roams freely at Yellowstone. Like bison, they sometimes block the traffic too. Don’t get too close, though — they can be injurious!

gif: elk (giphy.com)

And that concludes our tour of real-life Crisis Caverns!

What did you think? Have you been to Yellowstone or other national parks, and how does it compare? What other Poptropica islands resemble locations you’ve visited or hope to visit? Where would you like to go next on “Pop Places IRL”?

Thanks for joining us on this journey, and see you next time! 💎