Yellowstone National Park
(Pictures Of Scenery, Geysers and Wildlife In Yellowstone National Park) - October 28, 2006
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This was my first visit to Yellowstone National Park in the northwestern corner Wyoming,
and while we hardly visited every noteworthy spot in the park, I trust you'll get a "feel" for what makes Yellowstone
such a popular place. We entered the park from the north entrance near Gardiner, Montana. |
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Soon, one if inside the Wyoming state line and the first main attraction is the
Mammoth Hot Springs area. A large part of Yellowstone National Park has very unique geological characteristics,
including hot sulphur springs, geysers and old volancoes (if I'm not mistaken). In the top photo, note the white
and yellow rocks. Those formations are being shaped and created by hot spring water. Heated below,
water travels through buried limestone and then bubbles to the surface to deposit travertine.
I snapped a picture with ~A~ standing beside a hot springs "terrace" that looks like it has
been vomiting outside itself! :p) |
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A view looking north towards the town of Mammoth Hot
Springs and the Absoraka Mountains in southern Montana. The boardwalks exist
to keep people away from walking too close to the hot sprigns. The ground can be
generally unstable with a person falling through a thin layer
of ground ... bearing the risk of severe burns
and death from scalding hot water.
This is different than the hot springs in Colorado! |
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Heading south, we stopped at a few places including Swan Lake. |
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Sheepeater Cliff.
Here are my other national park pages:
Great Sand Dunes National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park |
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Heading south, things become more interesting with large
areas of hot springs. This spring was situated right on the roadside and the sulphur smell
was particularly icky! :p) |
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The Norris Geyser Basin is a worthwhile area with numerous geysers and springs
to explore. From a distance, the steam rising from
the ground in various spots has the appearance of a forest fire. The top photo is Emerald
Spring, and the bottom is Steamboat Geyser. Steamboat Geyser sprouted
up some water about five feet up in the air that I caught on the camera. According to the
sign, when the Steamboat Geyser erupts, it will shoot water 120 to 200 feet in the air, but
don't hold your breath trying to watch it, because it reportedly erupts
every four days to 50 years. Most geysers are fairly unpredictable, by the way,
with one exception being the Old Faithful Geyser, which we were headed to next! ;) |
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A nice photo of Gibbon Falls. |
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A few thoughts about the Old Faithful area. Firstly,
if you're heading from the north, the Lower, Midway and Upper Geyser Basins are all
definitely worth exploring. The Midway and Upper seemed to have a large number
(perhaps fifty) of geysers and hot springs pools that were quite active with emiting steam and occasionally spouting water. If you have the time, you may want to explore them.
Old Faithful has a huge parking lot area with a gift shop, restaurant,
lodge and other things to give the place more of an amusement park feel. Old Faithful
is unique in that it consistently erupts water approximately every 90 minutes, and the
park gives approximate times of when it will go off. There is plenty of seating around
Old Faithful for people to sit, wait and watch the geyser. The second photo shows
the geyser when it is calm and slowly building pressure under ground before its eruption.
The bottom left is my best photo of the eruption, which lasted for about 90 seconds. And
special thanks to ~A~ who showed drove her car and showed me around! :) |
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TOP: From Old Faithful, we drove a few miles to Craig Pass, which is part of the Continental Divide.
You can see the page I made here:
Craig Pass, Wyoming.
Sadly, we turned around and headed home (to Livingston, Montana)
at this point and missed out on seeing Yellowstone Lake, the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" and its waterfalls
and other sites to the east and northeast of the park.
BOTTOM: On the way home between Gardiner and Livingston, Montana,
I snapped this photo of the sunset! You can see my page about it here: Montana Sunset. :) |
Wildlife Inside Yellowstone National Park ...
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Wildlife!
Yellowstone National
Park is well-known for its wildlife. Buffalo freely
roam the park and here
are a couple of photos I took while sitting from my car. Yes, they were that close to the road! :) |
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A bull elk happily posed for me after eating some grass along the roadside. |
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Now this was actually dangerous. Large elk freely roam the park and should
be enjoyed ... from a distance. Note the unwise people by the white truck who were approaching the elk to
photograph it. Not smart! That elk could have easily gored to death that guy with the hat.
As the elk continued his on, I capture one decent photo of him. What a big animal! |
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Two elk spar with their antlers near the Mammoth Hot Springs area.
We also saw quite a few bighorn sheep in the area, but it became too dark to photograph them. Ah well! :p) |
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