A brief return to Yellowstone for one last look in 2020. As noted before, our last visit to Yellowstone in 2014 was spectacular. The weather was perfect, and the clouds outstanding. This was taken on our last day there. I still miss it, but that's what photography is for.
It's also the reason I bought the Canon SX50, still my primary camera. If it keeps functioning, it may be my last camera.
Tags: Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone River Wyoming Montana
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The last few visits we made to Yellowstone, something changed. I was no longer going to wait for Old Faithful, going looking for bison when there was already one in front of the car, look for new bird species, and all the other things I did on my first five visits. This time, in late May, it was cool, the skies were a beautiful blue, there were puffy clouds almost every day, the air was so clean you could taste it, and all the colors seemed more vibrant. It was the colors that really drew me in.
We went to Lamar Valley, but even with the new (at the time) Canon SX50, it was not long enough to get really good shots of pronghorn and bison. I did get a beautiful coyote there, but I kept being drawn back to the geysers and pools with algae which had formed unbelievable scenes.
I thought I'd take a one day break from dragons and damsels and show you one of the most remarkable pools at Norris Basin (just down the road from Old Faithful and Paintpots).
The wind was blowing, and all the steam was well out of frame.
[Dragons and damsels will be back on Sunday, unless I can ID any one of 30 wildflowers that are still in the queue. Oh, btw, just because I didn't go to Yellowstone to find wildlife doesn't mean I wasn't looking. On day one, I added to my imaginary list, six lifers and two "better renditions" of birds. It was the best 10 days we'd spent in a national park since an almost three-week stay on the Bow River outside Banff before they invented tourists, 1976.]
Tags: Norris Basin Geothermal Pools Algae Vibrant Colors Never Seen Before or Since Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons Wyoming and Montana Twoo week Old Canon SX50 Copyright Ethan A. Winning
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I probably haven't seen this image in 50 years. This is a scan of a slide, a photo taken of the Upper Falls in 1977. The kids were with us on this the fourth trip to Yellowstone taken by my wife and me.
As a scan, the image is much smaller than the original, and all EXIF are lost. Taken with an Olympus OM-1n, the lightest 35mm SLR at the time. The weight of equipment has always been a consideration of mine. There must be some law of nature that a one pound camera weighs 9 pounds after five hours on trails.
Btw, in seven trips to Yellowstone, the last in 2014 was the only time that the trail to the Upper Falls was closed. I think the Upper is much more impressive than the Lower, especially when you get a rainbow at that time of day. The Upper Falls is only 109 feet high, but it is wide and with snowmelt, flows with force that I've never seen after Niagara in 1948 which was my on my first trip to Yellowstone.
[Yellowstone Falls consist of two major waterfalls on the Yellowstone River, within Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States. As the Yellowstone river flows north from Yellowstone Lake, it leaves the Hayden Valley and plunges first over Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River and then a quarter mile (400 m) downstream over Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, at which point it then enters the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which is up to 1,000 feet (304 m) deep.]
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The geothermal areas of Yellowstone include several geyser basins in Yellowstone National Park as well as other geothermal features such as hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles. The number of thermal features in Yellowstone is estimated at 10,000. A total of 1,283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone, 465 of which are active during an average year. These are distributed among nine geyser basins with "only" 50 found Midway Basin. (The last post I made of Norris Geyser Basin which has 193 active geysers. It's not so much the numbers as it is the area that these basins encompass.)
Tags: Midway Basin Yellowstone National Park Wyoming Montana Geysers Pools Algae May 2014 Other-worldly Landscapes Canon SX40 Copyright Ethan A. Winning
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From Firehole and on the road to the Lamar Valley, we saw these two peaks. They never seemed to get closer until we rounded this bend, but we never saw the base of them. We don't know their names (as if every hill in the west is named). It wasn't until today that I noticed the third peak (on the left). Next year, we're going to try Yellowstone in September. I know the snow will be gone, and we may not get skies like this, but perhaps there will be more wildlife.
Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes. It will be quite a while before I'm out taking shots like this again though I just made reservations for a year from now at Yellowstone. Right now, some days I can do 100 yards; some, five miles. The only consistent things is the inconsistency.
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