Leaving Yellowstone

I was up early the next morning.  I'd actually broken camp the night before and slept in the car.  I'd planned on leaving early and didn't want to wait for things to dry out.  It was cold enough during the night that there was frost on things in the morning.

Yellowstone Lake.

The Snake River.

Steam rising from the Snake River.

A ground cloud on the other side of a ridge.

A lone bison.  Although a little underexposed in the foreground, I really like this picture.

I stopped to take some pictures of wildflowers along the way.

Most of the pictures didn't turn out very well.

This is the same valley where I was watching grizzlies a few nights before.

Lamar Valley.

A herd of bison and antelope in Lamar Valley.

I watched this lone coyote wandering through the herd.

Here he was pouncing on a mouse or something small.

And as he wandered off.

The Lamar Valley reminded me of pictures of the African savanna.

I passed this just before leaving the park.  There were a bunch of people with spotting scopes out so I turned around and took a couple of pictures.

They were watching the mountain goats.  Unfortunately, even with my big lens it was hard to capture them.

Experimenting with Fire

When I returned I started a campfire.  I had a lot of firewood so it burned for a long time and I just sat back and enjoyed it.  I messed around with the program settings some more.  I'm curious to see what people think, so if anyone actually views these, I'd like your opinions.

Yellowstone National Park - South Loop

The following day I toured the south loop.

I present the first two photos to show the difference my camera was to process with the settings I experimented with the night before.  I am pleased with the results.

A pelican and another water bird.

A hot spring.

There are signs up all over the place telling you not to approach the wildlife.  Here, this elk walked right up to me and another guy just to my left.  It had wandered with another from the treeline to this area which was pretty bleak.

The visitor center at Old Faithful.

When I was younger I took a bunch of pictures of Old Faithful and I didn't like any of them.  I don't think they capture the experience.  Consequently, I didn't take many pictures of the eruption.  This is the one I like the most.

A bluebird.

At Grand Prismatic Spring.  From where I was at, the steam rising looked like it had different colors.  You can sort of see it here.  

Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot spring in the United States.  

While the boardwalk gets you up close, the view is fairly flat.  Just south of this area, there is another parking area.  From there you can hike to an overlook of Grand Prismatic Spring.  The hike takes you to an area near the center of the screen.  I would have liked to have made the hike, but the parking lot is small and it was full.

A small geyser that seemed to be erupting continuously.

Runoff from the pool where the above geyser was.

A herd of bison.  Here's the thing about bison.  When you first get to the park, you're like "Oh look, a bison!"  After you're there a day or so when you see a lone bison, you think to yourself, "Meh, its only one."  The herds, small as they are, are impressive.

Here, oncoming traffic was stopped.  I cut across to the turnout that was on the other side of the road.  I was the first one to do so and was able to pull right to the front of the area.  I saw the herd was making it's way towards me so I just sat in my car and read as they approached, taking the occasional picture.  Once they go closer, I stepped out and took a few pictures.

This guy headed right for me.  By this time they were close enough I had gotten back in my car.

He stopped and grazed for a couple of minutes and then ran up the hill towards my car.  I thought he was going to actually charge the car, but at the last moment he turned and passed about 3 feet in front of my car.

Some calves.

Dead trees.

This area is just above the picture below.

This is a popular fishing area.

Along the roadside. 

Yellowstone National Park - North Loop

Yellowstone is divided up into what is more or less two loops, divided into a northern and southern section. 

This is one of the areas that was burned in the 1998 fires.  You can see that it has grown back nicely.  I really wanted to go visit the area right after the fires to see what it was like.  I think it would have been beautiful in a different way.

A bison outside one of the campgrounds.  This one ended up walking about 15 feet behind my car before crossing the road.

Another bison.

One of the picnic areas.  I don't recall which one, but it was south of Mammoth Hot Springs.  These piles of rocks can be seen a couple of other areas. 

Looking to the right of the previous picture.   You can see the stone structures along the river bank.

A beautiful vista.

This was a popular fishing area, if I recall.

A bridge heading north to Mammoth Hot Springs.

A bridge to the east of Mammoth Hot Springs.  I thought it was a beautiful structure.

Mammoth Hot Springs.

This was one of the turn outs.  I thought it was one of the most beautiful areas in the park.  It was very peaceful.  At the end of one part of the boardwalk there was a little dogleg with a bench.  Right behind the bench was a big rock which pretty much left you secluded from the rest of the boardwalk and parking area.  I sat there for a long time just enjoying the quiet.  This is the view from that area.

Another view from the area.

Another lovely scene.

A petrified tree.  There used to be 3 of them, but souvenir hunters destroyed the other two.  This one is fenced off to prevent it's destruction.


 

Another area that was burned in 1998.

People were stopped all over the area here because a black bear and her cubs had been spotted and they were trying to get pictures.  It had disappeared into one of the low areas here.

It is hard to see, but the rock structures seen in the picnic area are visible at the extreme right of this picture and ran along just below the ridge.

This deer walked towards the other visitors and myself with no fear.  We watched it for quite a bit while it grazed.

A waterfall.  The trail to the base of this has been closed.  I didn't get any closer than this. 

It was near this area where I pulled off and started talking to some people who were set up with a telescope and a spotting scope.  They were watching grizzly bears.  We saw a couple of them.  Near the top of the light green area, there was a pile of antlers one of the guys had found.  There were a couple of grizzlies and a black bear that seems like it was really torn up.  We also saw a few elk come from the treeline and work their way down the slope.  It was really cool.  There are a lot of people who go to the park to watch the wildlife and bring all sorts of scopes to see them with.

Looking north from the area where we were watching the bears.

Zoomed in a little.

Another beautiful sight.

While at the last waterfall, I got talking with a guy about my camera.  He recommended I try some of the settings I hadn't experimented with.  Here I tried and this was the result.  I really like way this turned out.

Sunset in Yellowstone.