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Published: September 8th 2009
Grand Tetons
That's a glacier at the top of the peak on the right.Yellowstone and one Grand Tetons shot.
The first shot here is a long range view of the Grand Tetons. I only drove through and stopped briefly for some pictures. I simply did not have time to explore this area well and the scenery was really gorgeous. I literally saw the buffalo (bison) roam 😊. Off the side of the road. But I just drove through this area and entered Yellowstone through the south entrance.
As I've said again and again, I needed much more time in this park. Yellowstone is HUGE. I only had time for such a small portion of the park and there was also road construction so I was cut off from some of the areas I really wanted to explore. Oh well - that just means I have to go back and spend more time. oh darn.
I have had the most fantastic luck with hotels on the trip and calling in the morning landed me a cabin inside the park at the Old Faithful area. As mentioned, I entered through the south and drove through beautiful scenery (and terrible road construction) to that area. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover I was
Old Faithful
A much nicer shot of this great geyser given "the best of the cabins" as it was apparently the only cabin that had a view of Old Faithful from the window and doorway. Below is a long range view of Old Faithful but I just had to show how close I was. It was great!! The day was clear, sunny and much cooler than the very hot weather I had been experiencing all the rest of the trip. I am including a much nicer shot of Old Faithful with the wind blowing away the steam giving a better shot.
I had to narrow down where to spend my time and I just barely touched on a small portion of this park. I decided on the Old Faithful geyser basins including the hot springs and mud pots. I met some great people and their enthusiasm for geyser gazing had me completely caught up and I spent some hours waiting for certain geysers to erupt. My first evening I did see a lot of the hot springs and some erupting geysers. I walked out to Morning Glory (the colors must be even more fantastic in the full sunlight) and read a sign there that said these colors have actually
been fading because of ignorant people who had thrown things in to the pool and clogged it up. Because of that, the spring has a more restricted water flow, decreasing the temperature and influencing (decreasing) the bacterial growth that gives it such brilliant colors. Workers at the park have spent a lot of time trying to fish out all the stuff that clogs it up but apparently it is too deep and too well stuffed in there and the things thrown in date back many many years so it can't be blamed on the most recent touristy stupidity... if anything I think I have seen that most of my fellow tourists have been very respectful of the parks - mostly picking up after themselves and I have even seen some (including myself) picking up random garbage that they see in the park and bringing it to the many garbage cans. Maybe I was just lucky and had a great batch of people at the same time as my great journey. (I also saw a lot of employees out there really early in the morning picking up garbage along the paths - I encourage people to give donations to parks or
Rain over yellowstone
Got caught in a thunderstorm and as it passed it was really interesting to watch do whatever they have to to support the maintenance of these parks. So much must happen that we never see).
It is too much to write a narrative for each of the pictures so I did try to add things in to the captions under the photo's. The crow walking around one of the geysers just fascinated me. It is apparently quite hot on the ground around the steaming geysers and this rather large bird just walked along poking at things on the ground.
I waited for hours to see the eruption of Grand Geyser - it is supposed to be one of the most spectacular. I was caught in a great thunderstorm and huddled under a tree with some enthusiasts and since we were already soaked, we just decided to wait! They give a 4 hour window for when they expect the eruption -some of the geysers are very predictable and others, like Grand Geyser, are difficult to narrow down to even 4 hours. I waited and waited until it was too dark to see before I left and never did get to see it erupt. However, as I mentioned I met some fantastic people. My geyser
Prismatic spring
This was a huge spring, hard to get a good picture and to represent the colors as great as they were. gazer friend, if you read this get in touch with me! It must have been the gin and tonics that made me forget to ask for contact info 😊. My fellow shutterbugs, I would love to see your pictures if you feel the urge to share. (I am the redhead that joined you in the rain).
I waited to see the Great Fountain (picture included) for almost 2 hours. Just when you say to yourself "ok, I'm only waiting another 10 minutes" you hear someone say "oh look - the pool is filling up, it must be ready to go soon" and so you wait... and wait... Actually this one was very close to on-time, I just showed up early! I was told that it was in a "low period" and so this eruption was not as huge as it can be. Oh well. It was still nice.
Castle Geyser was another one I waited for the night before I left. It was actually on time but unfortunately it was nearly dark and the pictures did not turn out so well. It was a nice eruption out of a huge mineral build up giving it the name of
Great Fountain
Great Fountain geyser erupting. I was told the eruptions are usually much bigger than this. Castle Geyser. At the end, a lot of steam whooshed up and was just as good as watching the water. I am glad I waited.
Prismatic pool - I will have to make sure that is the name of this huge pool - was stunning. As always the picture does not do it justice. The color of the pool itself was a deep clear blue, ringed with green on the edges and all surrounded with red and orange from the bacterial growth. I tried to take a shot to capture it all but I think the only way to do it justice would be a photo from overhead and you just couldn't get that shot without a low flying helicopter!
I drove through the east side of the park in to the canyon area, having to see the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" before I left. This is where quite a lot of bison were hanging out, causing traffic problems. The first one I came across was at Fishing Bridge and it was just ambling along the roadway, coming straight for my car!! Of course I was not moving... and it didn't bother to move too far out of
Castle Geyser
It was more impressive in person of course. the way, it nearly bumped my car and I am not exaggerating. The picture I just had to include is not a zoom photo! I could have reached my hand out and touched this bison (of course I did not) and as you can see, it looked right at me as if to say "go ahead and take your picture but don't think about touching me." It was a bit of a thrill I have to say.
I could be including dozens of bison photo's here but I will not. Having to stay at a complete stand still on the roads waiting for the bison to decide to move out of the way gave me more than enough opportunity to take tons of photo's. Anyone who has been to Yellowstone has surely experienced this same thing. Seeing the herds of Bison along the water was really nice to see though with young ones, bulls and all. I think it was mating season and there were some of the younger bulls playing around a bit. There were long delays waiting for HUGE stubborn ones to get out of the road.
And last to talk about was the yellow rock
Lion Geyser
sunset background of the canyon, giving the park it's name. The falls were spectacular. I hope I picked the best photo's to include here.
I departed through the east entrance, finally heading due east to my destination. I was not happy to leave but it had to be done... 😞.
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Pat
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That shot of Buzzy at the Continental Divide is going to be my next screen background.