Yellowstone National Park is a nearly 3,500-square-mile wilderness recreation area atop a volcanic hot spot. Mostly in Wyoming, the park spreads into parts of Montana and Idaho too.
After that brisk morning of photographing Idaho Falls, Jo and I jumped in my car and headed off to Yellowstone. The short drive was uneventful, but the closer we got to the park the unfriendlier the weather got. As I drove into the town of West Yellowstone, Montana the sky opened with pounding rain.
I looked up West Yellowstone and read “This small, fun-filled town is Yellowstone National Park's busiest gateway and a mecca for year-round outdoor recreation enthusiasts.”
I needed to stop for gas, and Jo wanted to stop to wander that tourist trap of a town to get Yellowstone T-shirts and other small keepsakes for her family. Fortunately, I always keep two umbrellas in my car for days like this, and we happily wandered around in that busy town having a fun time looking at all the tourist stuff that we were being coaxed to spend all our money on.
It was too wet and crowded for photography, so after getting T-shirts with Yellowstone Park emblazoned on them we left that town, and just 14 miles later entered the park to clearing weather. It was still cold and breezy, but the light was excellent for photography.
As we drove into the park Jo suddenly pointed and exclaimed, “Is that a fire?” At first glance the steam coming up in all directions did look like smoke, especially to a person from Pritchard who is used to seeing wildfires in the trees. I said, “No, it’s steam from all the geysers and hot pots; we will be stopping to photograph them.”
The first thing we saw were several bison in a meadow beside the road, and Jo leaned out of the car window to photograph them. There were several calves lying in the grass among the small heard of five or so adult bison.
Not soon after that we joined lots of people in a parking lot and followed a wooden walkway to see boiling hot springs, steam vents and hot mud pots. Jo was using her 28-300mm and I had my 24-120mm for that. There was so much steam because of the cold air that sometimes it was hard to see. One had to wait for the wind to blow, and then there were so many colours around everything. Oh wait. Using the proper words, I should say there were so many colours everywhere in that “geothermal” area.
I found a vantage point over a small geyser that spouted hot water every three or four minutes, where I could see a very large heard of bison in the distance. I have no doubt that there were close to a hundred of them strung out across the large meadow.
The last time I visited Yellowstone was back in 1978, and at that time there were fewer people and many animals — different animals — everywhere. But on this trip, we only saw the bison and a couple of elk, and Jo spotted a lonely bear going up distant hill. I don’t know why there were so few animals: perhaps it was because of the storm that was moving in, or maybe because of all the people and cars and buses. Nevertheless, we got to see and photograph Old Faithful and lots of colourful mud pots, steam vents and hot springs. That was fun.
We stayed until late afternoon and then headed off, because I wanted to get to Mammoth Hot Springs before the storm that had been in West Yellowstone moved in.
As I drove, the temperature started dropping and the rain started. The road changed elevation and the snow started. It was soon only 2 C on my car’s temperature indicator, and I was driving through a snowstorm, so there was no more stopping for pictures. The trees and both sides of the road were holding the snow, but luckily the road wasn’t too slippery, and I expect because there were so many cars the road stayed mostly clear.
Eventually we dropped in elevation, the snow ended, and I drove into a clear sky for the rest of the trip down the winding mountain road to Mammoth Hot Springs and the north exit of Yellowstone Park.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
