Along
the lake shore at West Thumb Geyser Basin. I believe that is Fishing
Cone on the shore. We were looking for otters this day, they like
the openings in the ice caused by the hot springs, but didn't see any.
"Algae"
growing in a runoff channel in the Upper Geyser Basin in the winter.
It's neat stuff. Really. It can even give you a pretty good
idea of how hot the water in a spring or a runoff channel is. Go
read about it at the Life
at High Temperatures site.
Aurum
Geyser, in the Upper Geyser Basin, in winter. I like Aurum for a
couple of reasons. It is close to the boardwalk, and gurgles and
splashes for quite a while before it erupts. So, it is interesting
even when not erupting. When it finally does have it's 20 ft. eruption,
it is angled so that it sometimes will spray the boardwalk.
Mystic
Falls, Winter. Mystic can be reached by a short trail from the Biscuit
Basin.
Go to Gallery 1 for summer shots of Mystic.
The
Upper Falls of the Yellowstone, Early Spring 1996.
Bison
and calf. because of there reddish color tourists will sometimes
ask " What are the red dogs following the bison herds around?". (Montana
Bison Dogs??) So, sometimes employees refer to the new calves as
"little red dogs". These guys were just hanging out on the side of
the road one day.
What
the bison look like if they don't make it through a harsh winter in Yellowstone.
Carcasses are common in the geyser basins in the spring. The grazing
animals like to hang out in the basins because there is at least some food
that isn't buried under 6 feet of snow and ice there, and maybe some warm
ground to sit on. But, there usually isn't enough food for all of
them.
A
summer snowstorm. I was driving along, it was a warm sunny June day,
then 10 minutes of snow, then a warm sunny day again. Because the
valleys in Yellowstone are about 7000 ft. elevation or better, it can snow
at any time. Or it can rain, or hail. So be prepared.
Pretty
sunset at the Lake dorms. Usually Yellowstone has subtler sunsets
than this, with paler colors. This looks more like a Florida sunset.
But sunset does last longer in Yellowstone than in the subtropics.
Castle
Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin. Castle is a big (80- 100 ft.) predictable
geyser, erupting every 11 or 12 hours. Unless it has a minor eruption,
which is sort of a short version of it's regular eruption that delays the
next full eruption. It has a fairly long eruption, about 20
minutes of water that gradually changes to steam. The transition
from water to steam is something to to wait for and hear, it's pretty loud,
you get a good sense of the tremendous pressure of the escaping steam,
and you can feel it even. The steam phase of the eruption lasts about
an hour and sort of gradually tapers off.
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