Summer 2008, Trip to Yellowstone

Burns are again a natural part of the park, but young trees sprout up to take the place of the dead ones. This section is from a fairly recent fire (not the massive 1988 fires).

Firehole River at Midway Geyser Basin has many-colored streams feeding into it from the hot springs.

Grandma and Grandpa on the trails at Midway Geyser Basin

The Grand Prismatic Spring at Midway Geyser Basin. Different colored bacteria live in water of different temperatures.

Scenery on the Northeast Side of Yellowstone, including Tower Falls (we skipped Yellowstone Falls this time)

Ian ponders the likelihood the sign saying "Danger, Stay Back" with a picture of falling rocks is correct.

Meanwhile, Grandpa goes out on a ledge to get the best shot overlooking the Yellowstone River northwest of Tower Falls. Again, the sign near his feet basically warns against what he's doing.

The view was worth it. This is looking north into the Yellowstone River gorge.

Looking south into the Yellowstone River gorge, near Tower Falls.

Stream that feeds into Tower Falls above the Yellowstone River (Tower Falls itself is on tape, no pictures, sorry).

Another view of a buffalo as we drove along, this one at a dust wallow or steam vent below. We saw many more buffalo, several elk, a couple black bear, one grizzly, and pronghorn antelope.

Grandpa on hillside near Mount Washburn. We stopped to give Philip a chance to throw some snowballs in July.

Sandy and Philip having a snowball fight. Philip easily ducks this snowball, but more were coming.

Kuma and Sasha enjoyed the snow as well. The elevation here is probably over 7500 feet or 2300 meters, later we crossed Dunraven Pass at 8859 feet or 2700 meters

A view of a part of the panorama in Yellowstone. Most pictures are closeups of attractions or animals, but there's also a lot of the big open scenery in Yellowstone's 2.2 million acres.

Several male elk (rams? bulls? bucks?) eating and resting. The antlers of five can be seen in the big picture.

Rob and Philip at Mammoth Hot Springs. These features change over time, and unfortunately it seems that Mammoth Hot Springs is considerably diminished from 20 years ago, even 10 years ago. But the north edge is growing.

Golden Gate highway leading to the north exit of Yellowstone at Gardiner.

A wide variety of vehicles from nearly every state could be seen in Yellowstone. Big RVs and trucks and a surprising number of the Prius, and then this driver of a Model A Ford, with a covered wagon trailer.

Leaving from the north entrance to Yellowstone.