Yellowstone Photo Trip 2

After visiting and giving Nathaniel his first view of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We spent the second day exploring the middle/west side of the park and ended the day in the Boiling River which was way less crowded than last time I was there. It's just such and awesome place to end the day - like a good soak in a hot tub only better. It always feels great on back which is usually sore while I am camping due to sleeping on a "camp mat" - even through I bought a nice Alps Comfort Air Pad to bring, which works great for car camping, AND brought along an extra foam pad.

Hoping the weather would improve we waiting till the last day to head south and see Old Faithful at the Upper Geyser Basin. But Mother Nature had other plans for us. The second night we were hit with not only high winds but rain and thunder storms. I was way impressed with the Coleman Montana Tent I picked up last year. Nathaniel and I made sure to tie out all of the lines and the rain fly (I used the opportunity to show him how to properly secure tent stakes and tie knots) - he had asked when we were setting up why we had to tie them all out, and by this night he was grateful that we did.  At least two tents in the campground collapsed during the night.

After the storm passed the temperature plummeted below freezing, having suspected the temp would fall I went to bed in thermal underwear, a sleeping bag liner and wool hat - Nate didn't cause he was warm when he went to bed so when I woke up and realized how cold it was I woke Nate up and made him get his sleeping bag liner out, and just to be safe I walked to the car in the dark (not a preferred course of action in Yellowstone, the car was in the parking lot along with a dumpster - I thought for sure I would be eaten by a bear) to get my Little Buddy Propane Heater I brought for emergencies (I love my Little Buddy Heater - great for Horse Trailers and Tent Camping, 7 hours of safe heat - perfect). Of course nothing happened and I brought the heater back and got the tent and kid all nice and warm again.

Monument Geyser Basin 

Monument Geyser Basin 

The morning was nice and we enjoyed a big breakfast - but then the clouds rolled in and even though I was disappointed we made our rounds through some LONG road construction waits and to a couple of Geyser Basins - the first one we hit didn't have name and because the road construction had us stopped near it on the road we left the car and visited the geysers - traffic wasn't moving and everyone else was doing it too - so I thought "what the heck - might as well, while we're stuck here." We also visited Monument Geyser Basin and Midway Geyser Basin on the way which I though was fantastic even though Grand Prisma Spring was too fogged over by its own steam for me to be a picture.

Midway Geyser Basin

When I first saw this I thought it looked like I was on a different planet. The landscape as a whole was just completely alien. 

Log in Geyser Run Off

(I have more B&Ws but I am LAZY when it comes to my film work)

Fountain Paint Pots

Edge of a Geyser

Finally we arrived at Old Faithful skipping two other Geyser Basins only to be chased off the viewing deck by the rangers because of an incoming thunder storm. Apparently 8 people were injured one died earlier that year because of a lighting strike at Old Faithful - all that water in the ground makes it VERY dangerous, so now nobody can hang out at the view deck when a storm comes through. Along with every else we moved inside explored the brand new Old Faithful visitors center did some shopping and saw a movie. The new visitors center has a movie theater where they play movies about Yellowstone that you can watch for free - neat huh? Meanwhile the thunder outside rocked the visitors center we could hear it and feel it even in the theater - I think by that time everyone was glad to be inside. The storm soon passed and as a result I got these pictures of Old Faithful and Upper Geyser Basin.

Castle Geyser
This guy goes off once every 7 hours and it's eruptions last an hour.

For a brief moment a Rainbow stole the show at Upper Geyser Basin.
I really love how I caught these folks totally mesmerized by a simple rainbow in the middle of one of Earth's geologic wonders.

Spring Edge - Thermofiles

Forest Hill Geyser

Old Faithful starting to erupt 

 Old Faithful erupting

 Old Faithful, post eruption

 Old Faithful Lodge 

See all the young trees? The area is looking real pretty as its recovering from the 1988 fires, in which, if you'll remember firefighters and the National Guard made a final stand to protect the Old Faithful Lodge and Visitors Center. Before the fire this picture would not have been possible.

The next morning, even though it rained all night - we were blessed with a couple of hours of sunlight which I used to dry the tent out as we packed up to go home. On our way out of the park I snapped these photos of some of my favorite mountains and Rustic Falls - when we first arrived at the park there wasn't hardly any water flowing over this set of falls, but after all the rain of last night and yesterday there was a good enough flow that I could try taking another picture of it with my tripod but of course since it was late morning the light was too much for me to slow the shutter all the way down on my little Cannon Power Shot SX  (its a 10X optical zoom) camera, but I still think I caught a pretty good picture. My little cannon is my usual camping/hiking camera - most of the time I don't use my big camera for those activities, its too heavy and it would be way too easy for me to ruin it without some protective gear which I can't afford. But my little Cannon, I believe is one of the best little cameras on the market - just look, I took ALL my Yellowstone pictures with it. The optical zoom is VERY nice for the price, the manual options are even nicer, it attaches to my tripod and has never let me down. Of course it has it's limitations - but I know them and am very good at working around them. Fresh batteries are a must - this camera doesn't function well on low batteries at all. You DO NOT NEED a big fancy $1000 camera to take good pictures, you just don't. It's a money trap.

 Bunsen Peak

 Electric Peak

 Rustic Falls

Nate slept most of the way home, but he was awake and chatted a little while. In the late evening on Sunday night we arrived at my place where his mom was waiting to pick him up. It was a great trip despite the weather and I hope we can do it again this year too. I still haven't been to the South or East sections of the park. I swear i could spend my life exploring Yellowstone and not see it all, it truly is America's Best Idea - a place affordable for all people to go - and recharge, center themselves and learn about the natural world around them.