The Grand Tour

Finally got on the Canyon Day Tour today, this is a roughly ten hour tour of the southern loop of the park. We stopped in West Thumb (my summer home), Lake, Hayden Valley, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This is going to be an extremely long post, enjoy.


Firstly, West Thumb Geyser basin. This is only about two miles from Grant Village where I lived all summer. Very small basin right on the shore of Yellowstone Lake. On a clear day (not this day sadly) you get thermals, the lake, and mountains all in one shot. The great white expanse in the background of these pictures would be Lake Yellowstone (the largest Alpine lake in the Lower 48).

Fishing Cone (people used to catch fish then cook them fresh in here), I threw in a summer picture for contrast):

Random handful of shots:

Few shots of Lake Hotel, the oldest (and yellowest) hotel in the park along with a few more cool shots of the lake.



Hayden Valley, large glacially formed valley. During the summer it is thronged with Bison and water fowl. This large rolling valley is cut by the Yellowstone River and the snow adds amazing relief to the rolling hills that make up the valley. It is worth noting that this may be one of my favorite pieces of the park.

The "Bomb" or Bombardier snow coach the main method of transporting guests in the winter. All of these are roughly 50's-60's vintage with newer V8 engines. Worth noting that this was one of those dumb shots that came out pretty awesome looking...

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Not a lot to post here seeing as I discussed it this summer. However, the Lower Falls are 308ft, upper about 109. Canyon itself is roughly 1500ft deep on average. Again the contrast of the snow is amazing. Note that the lower falls are a single channel rather than two larger ones due to ice...

Random scattering of pictures...

Just some more pictures as I have been taking as I'm out hiking around...

Sawmill Geyser, one of my personal favorites. It erupts out of pool that is normal dead calm until its 30-50 minute eruption. Rather than a nice plume that you often see with geysers it shoots out more burst like eruptions of water. This picture demonstrates that action well, especially viewed fullsize you can see the actually pulse of water...

Peace, quiet, and solitude...all thing embodied by this picture:

Buffalo use their massive heads powered by equally large muscles to push snow away and find something to eat, do believe that is what I have captured here:

I was there, trust me no gold at either end of this rainbow, just a geyser:

Firehole River Valley and beyond from the top of Mystic Falls. Sat here for a good hour just enjoying some brilliant sunshine. Worth nothing that the Firehole River Valley is just another name for the location of Upper/Mid/Lower Geyser basins. Who's run off feed the river which flows north to the Madison, than further north to the Missouri, and taking it even further eventually it ends up in the Mississippi (and so on).

Had an Ansel Adams moment (that would be Mystic Falls, on the Firehole River), pretty pleased with the results...

As usual hope everyone enjoys seeing these as much as I enjoy taking them...

Geysers and Bison (oh my)

Spent the day wandering around the Upper Geyser Basin (the official name for the Old Faithful area). Was lucky enough to see Oblong Geyser erupting, Grotto Geyser being very active, and a large herd of Bison from not far away. Great way to while away a saturday afternoon.

Giant Geyser:

Oblong Geyser:

Close up of strange deposits near Solitary Geyser:

Its odd to find how large fires often miss trees every small tree in this shot is an out growth of the 1988 fires):

Just a random shot:

Series of shots of Grotto Geyser, the odd formations are due to the geyser essentially consuming surrounding pine trees in minerals to form its cone:

And finally, Bison (I learned today that the scientific name for Plains Buffalo/Bison is Bison Bison Bison):

Lonestar Geyser (Winter):

Another quick post. This was my hike today, out and back to Lonestar Geyser along with a stop at the Kepler Cascades. This geyser is known as Lonestar because it is located roughly 3 miles from any other major geyser, the closest being old faithful. It is one of the few geysers to be so isolated, most exist among a much larger network of springs, pools, and geyser (known collectivly as a basin). This was a great hike, waited about two hours to witness the eruption, it is always very fascinating to watch geysers build to eruption. Also, met a very nice pair of guests who seemed equally ensconsed in watching the geyser build to eruption. One thought worth keeping in mind when looking at these pictures, the geyser cone for Lonestar is about six feet high. Cones generally grow at about 1-2 inches in a hundred years.

Kepler Cascades are simply a small set of falls along the Kepler river, far more interesting in the winter than in summer. As usual, enjoy. The first pic is up river from the falls, the next two are the falls themselves.





Lonestar Geyser Cone (early stages of eruption):




Full eruption at various stages (going backwards from the end):

Steam phase near the end, took this as I was leaving the geyser, might be my favorite picture:


Steam/Water phase (about halfway through) up close:


Full water phase (about 5 minutes after it started):


Steam from geyser liquid run off, this was a couple hundred yards from the geyser, but as erupted the water grew warmer and warmer, producing more and more steam:


These last few are just dumb luck great timing shots of Old Faithful village (ie home) as old faithful erupted shrouding the entire area in steam/fog:

The tall plume is a geyser, the rest is just settling in all around the area:


This is literally 2 minutes later, you can see the growth. Tiny spot dead center just below the horizon is the OF Inn, this shot was incredible dumb luck. If I had stared any longer and not gotten my camera out I may have missed it.:

Biscuit Basin/Mystic Falls Winter

Here is the beginning of my (documented) winter adventures. Snowshoed out Biscuit Basin from Old Faithful. This was a hike I had done more than once this summer however, the snow brings a new dimension to the beauty of this place. It is also worth noting that these last two days have been the sunniest since I have been in the park. Not a whole lot else to say about this one, enjoy the pics.

Cliffs near the Falls:


The basin from an overlook:


Riverside Geyser (first time catching this):


Random tree:


Castle Geyser:


Old Faithful:


Mystic Falls (created by the Little Firehole River falling off the Madison Plateau into the Firehole valley):



Just a cool shot of the woods: