Yellowstone National Park...so famous! Why? Well, it was the first National Park (1872). It is also huge (3468 square miles)! What I believe truly makes this park unique, however, is the incredible diversity of the natural formations and wild animals.
Yellowstone is home to the famous lodgepole pine. These are the things you always hear about that are burning there - it's a process of reforestation.
Yellowstone is also home to many bears. Here, Jeff is seen reading the Bible and praying for protection from the bears. Ok, that's not actually true - we were reading Psalms. But the lake you see here is Yellowstone lake...one of the largest high altitude lakes on the continent.
It maintains a chilly 42°F...so you can't swim in it.
The continental divide also crosses through yellowstone. In cause you're wondering what the continental divide is, it is spot where waterways on one side eventually flows west, and the other side flows east. This was the only shot we were able to get of one of the signs...
The main roads in yellowstone make a figure 8. There is an upper and lower loop. After settling in at our campsite, we drove around the lower loop, which includes a very active geyser area. You will see some incredibly bright colors in the following images. I promise to you that they are not embellished beyond their natural state.
There area has quite a high sulfur content which results in a lovely odor...
Jeff and I were highly impressed by this area. This came as a surprise, as we expected it's high popularity would take away from its natural splendor. (Jeff's rendition of the previous photograph)
We met a friendly trio from L.A. and spent a good hour walking around, looking at the various thermal pools and minor geysers.
You can see a geyser's steam in the distance...that was the average sight all around the various pathways.
Due to the generally unstable nature of the ground and high water temperatures, you have to stay on the pre-constructed paths. I did not find this to detract from the experience, however.
One thing that could detract from the overall experience, however, could be the mass influx of people about every hour. They come to see a geyser you may have heard of...
They wait in anticipation for their beloved Old Faithful. Well, I found that the crowd made for a more interesting picture than Old Faithful itself, but don't worry, you'll get to see a picture of it in a little bit.
After watching Old Faithful do her thing, Jeff and I split from the L.A. family and headed back to the less famous geysers. Seen in the distance here is the Old Faithful Lodge.
We came upon this fellow in the suspender here to your left. He told us that a very unique event was about to happen. You see the little spout on the right of the picture? That is an indicator spout for the Beehive Geyser...which is a quite erratic geyser, but incredibly powerful. It spouts much higher than Old Faithful.
So Jeff and I got in position for the "show." See the little nub in the bottom right of the picture? That's where the geyser is. You can see the indicator in the middle.
And the show began.
The water went up slowly at first.
People started to take notice and a big crowd gathered.
I had to zoom out cause the spray was getting so high.
It just kept going up!
The bad went to worse. At its highest point, the wind changed. You guessed it...in our direction.
This picture shows the end result. We, along with our cameras, got soaked. We could have ran...but why? Once the wind changed directions again, we looked back to see a huge crowd of people, staring at us in amusement. I then cleaned my lens protector (i'm glad I put it on) and continued to shoot. Jeff got a picture of me (notice the water still on his lens).
Another cleaning round. The beehive is still spitting in the background. Notice...I am wet.
Now that that experience was over...we dried ourselves off. In the process of drying, I took this picture.
I really wanted to know where this hole went. It looked like a tunnel just waiting to be explored...
Animal! Jeff was good at spotting them.
We finished off a loop through the geyser basin.
Little did we know that we would be returning to Old Faithful...
But along the way we would see amazing things, like the fine details of the edge of a spring.
A group of music singing boys in front of the general store.
And Old Faithful again! This is a picture taken in 1889, only a few years after the park opened. (OK, I just made it look old...)
This is old faithful as it looks today! Specifically, as it looks through the eyes of Jeff.
The circle of life.
We took a one way road less traveled to get to this point...a running hot spring. What a curious sight it was! Flowing like a river, but hot like a hot spring. It's called Firehole Lake.
Jeff taking a walk along the edge of the ominous Firehole Lake!
We then began a climb into a hilly forest type area. This picture highlights one of our favorite parts of Wyoming...the "Crumbly Cheese" sign, as I liked to call it. Apparently it is intended to signal potential falling rock. After Wisconsin, however, our minds were still on cheese.
In a national park, you'd think that you could quickly get from one place to another. Not so. Each individual loop of the figure 8 is at least 65 miles around.
We went to the largest canyon at yellowstone, near a famous location called Artist Point. We decided, however, to go on the path less taken. It brought us here.
Side note: beetles can be deadly to trees, and they prove that humans did not invent graffiti.
I was blown away here. Next to this path was a very steep slope that dropped all the way to the bottom of the canyon!
This is what I was seeing. (Well, I was seeing it in visible light, but that's irrelevent).
We slowly climbed up. My asthma was a tad difficult, but we took it slow and steady.
Me, taking a break. We were still on a path, so I kept my trusty sandals instead of sneakers.
And we made it! Point sublime. This was, in my opinion, the best part of the trip. I was completely blown away, tired but excited, and just plain out of words.
Jeff wanted a picture with his arms out. This was the end result.
Once again, here is what we saw. Pictures don't truly capture the moment.
My last image from point sublime...highlighting shadows and the unseen.
A close-up of point sublime, where we were. Look at the next few pictures to get a feeling of where we went.
On our walk back, I took some time to lay on the ground and examine the plant life along the forest floor.
I then went from floor to sky. All I had to do was flip over. When I looked up, I saw this.
Jeff, capturing the sky. And graciously carrying my camera bag and equipment at >8000 ft altitudes.
This is the picture most people would be seeing...it is artist's point. In celebration of its name, I tried to make it look old and artsy a little.
I took a family portrait/picture for this relatively large group of family members who were at the lookout. As a return for the favor, the one guy took a picture of Jeff and I.
We headed back to camp satisfied at a great day. We were given this sunset to close it all off.
BUT! That wasn't all! Shocking events were to come.
We would see these Yellowstone shuttle busses - meant to look all old and stuff.
We would see Buffalo.
And get stuck in a traffic jam? Yup! This poor biker decided to turn off his bike and walk with traffic. Great gas mileage.
And this was the shocking event. A buffalo in the oncoming traffic lane. He was relatively disinterested in the cars, but he walked right down the center of the oncoming lane, which obviously cause quite a delay in regular traffic patterns.
