Wow

Everywhere you turn in Yellowstone National Park, there's something to see. That something is usually spectacular: be it waterfalls, rapids, hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, mud pots, richly colored bacterial mats, stunning vistas, or gaggles of wildlife, it's just around the corner at this place. Sometimes literally. Just a bit inside the west entrance to the park is a bald eagle nesting area--for which motorists are required to slow down to 15 mph and not stop for the quarter-mile stretch of road directly in front of the nest closest to it. In four trips in and out by that entrance thus far, we've seen one eagle all four times--and this afternoon as we were leaving, the nesting bird's mate was perched on a branch of a nearby burnt skeleton of a lodgepole pine. That alone would be worth the $25 admission fee. (I can say that, since, as an annual pass holder, I don't pay entrance fees. But I'm certainly getting my money's worth this year, no question about it!)

Literally no one knows how many waterfalls there are in Yellowstone. Every time someone goes looking, it seems they find another one to add to the list. In two days, by my count, we've seen at least half a dozen. Here are a couple of them: first, the Undine Falls, four miles east of the Mammoth Hot Springs:

The river beneath the falls does some spectacular twists, but I just couldn't get a wide enough field of view to get a decent shot showing that perspective. Next are the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone, in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (about which more later). These are the second most-photographed spot in the park, after Old Faithful:

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone may not be as big as the "original" Grand Canyon--but it is equally as stunning, at least in my estimation. And here's why. The following is a view from Point Sublime of the spectacular coloration of the canyon walls. The colors result from both the leaching of minerals from the stone by rainwater action, and also the deposition of minerals by the many vents and hot springs in the canyon walls, along with the thermophilic bacteria that live in and around those features. The result is just amazing:

I really didn't have much interest in visiting Old Faithful (which is the most-photographed spot in the park: and hence my disinclination to spend much time there). However, as we were doing the southern portion of the Grand Loop Road today, and happened to be near the Old Faithful Lodge when we both decided we wanted to stop for lunch, we pulled in. By the time we managed to find a parking place, get to the cafeteria, place our orders, and eat our meal, we noticed that the viewing benches outside were filling up. So we wandered down and found out that we were only about 15 minutes away from the next anticipated eruption. I couldn't really argue with Dave about sticking around for 15 minutes to catch the sight, even though we were only two in a crowd of at least a couple of thousand.

The geyser teased us a little bit with a few false starts, but eventually produced the real thing:

In addition to the aforementioned bald eagles, in two days in the park we've thus far seen two coyotes:

Whole herds of bison and deer:

Three bears (not all at the same time, so no cracks about beds or porridge, please), three pelicans, a couple of egrets, flocks of ducks, and several elk. Two of the latter appeared to be interested in more than just browsing for aquatic plants, as the one followed the other all the way down the length of Floating Island Lake, and seemed to want to get something going on with the other, who didn't seem nearly interested in the first elk. I don't know enough about elk anatomy to be sure, but since both the animals in question had at least rudimentary horns, it's possible I may have photographic evidence of homosexual behavior in another mammalian species:

Comments

[andante]

Lovely photos! Thank you so much for posting them. I'm glad you're getting the opportunity to enjoy Yellowstone.

Many, many moons ago my parents took a swing thru Yellowstone on our trip to visit relatives on the Left Coast.

I'll never forget rolling down my window and sticking my head out just as we came upon a pool of sulphur fumes. Bright yellow, as I recall. The smell I'd rather forget!

[Michael]

Supposedly, we made a trip through here when I was a wee tot, but I can't honestly say I have any conscious recollection of that. However, I'm feeling tremendously blessed and excruciatingly happy that I've been able to make this trip. As I was saying to my traveling companion (and best friend in all the world) earlier this evening, I don't feel worthy of the wonders that I've experienced the past three days--but I'm grateful for each and every last single one of them, and would happily accept more were they to be offered.

We're heading back to Vegas tomorrow, taking a scenic detour through Grand Teton National Park and some of the back-country roads in this part of the world where we hope to get a chance to enjoy some of God's country all by ourselves.

[Andrea]

Wow! Great photos and commentary. Thank you.