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Yellowstone National Park

In my 28 years living in the Wild, Wild, Rocky Mountain West I have never been to Yellowstone National Park. Until a few weeks ago. On my way back from Montana I decided to take the long way home and drive through Yellowstone and the Tetons. I’m afraid and delighted that I will never be quite the same, the gorgeous mountain vistas, the sheer scope of the park, the geysers and hot pots, the smell of unadulterated sulphur. It was amazing. I wish I had a few more days in the park, I would have loved to take a few hikes and get off the beaten path. Part of me wishes I had someone to share those vistas and experiences with, and the rest of me is happy that I went alone, just me, the buffalo, and ten million acres of wilderness.

From Gardiner, MT I came through the historic Roosevelt gate, commissioned by President Roosevelt when Yellowstone National Park was created. I picked up my Annual National Park Pass, and off I went exploring.

Mammoth Hot Springs, the orangey parts of the formations are the parts that currently have water running over them and the white parts are dry. Depending on the springs below these formations, parts can be dry or wet and things change all the time. In the 1970′s the entire thing was orangey and slippery. Now it is mostly white and dry.

I wandered through these springs for a good hour, snapping a couple dozen pics as I went. I’m still fascinated by the colors and the intricate details of some of the formations, it’s almost like coral.

It would be a waterfall, you know, if it wasn’t made out of rock-hard mineral-coral (that is a technical term that I just made up, by the way).

Aren’t these beautiful!? I can’t get over it.

First buffalo sighting, there is no zoom involved in this shot. Awesome.

A canyon vista on the way to Tower Falls. This view only gets better and better, stick with me. I drove up Mt. Washburn to Dunraven Pass, and down the other side to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

I could look at this view all day, it almost looks like a painting, photo taken at the brink of the Lower Falls.

I didn’t hike up to the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone, but I did go to a look out to see the Lower Falls. This view? Also amazing.

After a long day of exploring the park, I headed to West Yellowstone for the night and had my first bison pot roast and it was delicious. Yellowstone: don’t feed the wildlife, eat them with gravy.

The next morning on my way into the park I saw a herd of buffalo, including a few pale babies that just make your heart melt. For as wooly and mammothy as they grow up to be, those babies are adorable. (Note: I also saw 2 wolves, a black bear, and a couple of deer…although not a single pic of those animals turned out recognizable, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.)

The Celestine Pool in the Lower Geyser Basin, which is just outside of Old Faithful.

The Grand Fountain Geyser, a constant gurgle of boiling water and steam.

Old Faithful. It’s faithful alright, it spit up right on the dot. Honestly, I was pretty underwhelmed by Old Faithful, I’m glad I saw it, but I’m also glad I showed up right on time so I only had to wait for 10 minutes before seeing the geyser blow.

West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake, this was perhaps my favorite and the most picturesque place that I visited. The lake is beautiful and the geyser system next to it have these gorgeous aqua and green pools with orangey-red surrounding soil. It’s stunning.

Those colors are incredible, and the steam coming up from the pools makes it feel like you are walking through a sauna (mind you, it was chilly enough that I needed a jacket, so the sauna-steam felt fantastic).

There is this wooden walkway that leads you around the hot pots, and it is worth every step (I think total it’s about a 1.2 mile walk).

I am withholding a ridiculous amount of restraint in posting pics of West Thumb, I took about 200 photos here, not all of which turned out, sure, but there are a dozen more beautifully gorgeous ones on Flickr.

After finally extricating myself from West Thumb, I headed south towards the Grand Tetons, passing Moose Falls on my way out.

See all photos here (and there’s a ton more, I have only posted 20 of my 100 favorites here.)

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