The Great Northwest: Yellowstone National Park

As we drove to Yellowstone from Oregon, we stopped to see the lave flow that covered much of southern Idaho thousands of years ago.  It has limited soil built up so the plants tend to be sage and other high desert plants and animals.

 

We had not been to Yellowstone for 28 years.  Some things have changed.  You now have to walk a mile and a half to the Morning Glory Pool.  The walk back got long and hot.  The pool is no longer the vivid azure it once was.  Despite numerous signs warning of the damage and threats of fines, tourists still throw things into the pools, which clogs the hot springs plumbing and ruins the colors.

 

Some things have not changed.  Old Faithful still draws huge crowds. 

 

 

 

The lodge pole pine is starting to fill in burned over areas. 

 Stark white skeletons of trees that perished when the steam became more intense.

 

 

Giant Prismatic Spring is the largest and perhaps most colorful.  The blues indicate the hottest water.  The yellows, oranges and browns are caused by heat-loving micro-organisms that live in the hot water.

 

 

 

 

Elk and buffalo think they own the park.  These elk were in the town area of Mammoth Hot Springs.

 

Many of the terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs were white or with only streaks of color where the hot water flowed, but the colors at Cleopatra Terrace were as glorious as I remember

 

 

Grand Tetons National Park

We took a few hours out of Yellowstone to drive down the road 50 miles to the Grand Tetons.  These amazing mountains appear to just rise up out of Jackson Lake and Jackson Hole (the valley).  John Colter of the Lewis and Clark expedition had fallen in love with this part of the west and became the first white man to explore the valley.