Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
June 2008 was a birthday to remember, we set out from Bartlesville to drive up to Yellowstone and stay a week before circling back down the Rockies and stopping in at places along the way.
We were expecting much of Yellowstone and it didn't let us down, starting with Lake Yellowstone by the roadside as you enter the park
Obviously Yellowstone is famous for its geothermal pools of all kinds and it is easy to see why, some of them look so inviting, but diving in would be a mistake, the images below are a small number of pools, there are so many its impossible to show them all.
We walked around the park as much as possible with the dodgy leg, including up Mammoth Hot Springs which is incredible and ultimately has some spectacular colour on top from the geothermal activity.
The views from here are spectacular and the huge pool of orange in the foreground leaves you amazed at the things nature does
just a little further up the top of Mammoth Hot Springs you can see the overspill where the pool continues rolling down the hillside swallowing up anything in its path
The park has so much more than geothermal pools alone, the Yellowstone River cuts a swath through the park and allows some great panoramas, it also has countless waterfalls
I love this shot of a huge storm moving in as we walked in the park, we made it back to the truck just as it started raining hard and sat for 10 minutes until it passed, in no time the sun was back out
there are huge forested areas that have hundreds of hiking trails which allow spectacular views across the park.
and of course 'Old Faithful' which is much more exciting than we first thought, during the build up you can feel the tension in the audience and when it does finally blow it is huge, you can feel the heat and even catch some spray, quite a thing on its own.
Some of the pools are so spectacular they should get a spot all of their own (as this beauty does) taken just before a huge storm passed over, though it appears illuminated this stunning glow is actually as the pool appears in real life.
there are also a huge number of hot mud pools that seem to attract the park buffalo
the park has its own western transport to which will take you to some of the best backwoods locations without effort
of course there are the bears too, "hard to find" the ranger told us. After we had seen 4 in 4 days we were not sure if he meant it or if we were really lucky, speaking to friends it seems we were very lucky.
even fire damaged areas have a beauty all of their own here, I could wax lyrical about Yellowstone for hours and show a further 100 photographs (at least) but the truth is you really do have to go there, I suspect we may return....at least once.