Summer Vacation 2012: Day 8

On Friday morning, we woke up early to go see the Mud Volcano area before we packed up and headed back toward home.

Some birds along the way.

A geothermal area along the side of the road.

The mud volcano area is made up of several muddy pools with gaseous bubbles and sulfuric acid. Some of these pools have erupted and spewed mud in the past, but aren't doing that right now.

This pool was bubbling quite a bit. You can see mine and Bill's reflections in the steam.

Since we were up early, the Mud Volcano area was nearly deserted. Bill and I were walking along the boardwalk and came upon this buffalo. He looked up and gave us a very menacing look. There are many signs all over Yellowstone saying that tourists have been "gored by buffalo." Needless to say, we gave him a wide berth...

One of the bubbling pools steaming in the morning air.

The Black Dragon's Caludron is a very large pool. It's difficult to see its size here, but you will be able to see it in the compilation video.

A bubbling puddle.

This pool had so many gaseous bubbles coming up that it actually created waves and a mini shoreline.

A sulfuric stream.

This is what I think of when I see this robin:

I love this movie...

I'm thinking maybe this robin has heard that a few too many times?

This steam really stunk like sulfur.

The pools in the Mud Volcano area are the most acidic in the park. In this spot, the steam has worn away the grate. It also discolored the wood railing and stone walls. If you look in the picture below, you'll notice that the wood is stained this dark blue color. This is from the steam.

A hole in the parking lot. I guess a thermal feature started to break through after they'd paved it?

After going to the Mud Volcano area, Bill and I packed up our camp and headed south through the Grand Tetons (K on the map) and all the way to Price Utah (L on the map)

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On our way out, we saw a large crowd of people stopped on the side of the road looking at this mamma grizzly bear and her two babies. They were very far away. This was the best I could photograph them with an 80x digital zoom.

Shooting Star flowers.

An Elk

He was done with us lol.

Below is my compilation of all the video clips from Yellowstone. Enjoy!

   
I recommend viewing this in full screen. If you have a good internet connection and computer, you can change the settings to 1080p.

The Grand Tetons again :)

Bill and I decided to go looking for some moose. We have been trying to see a moose ever since our Alaska trip two years ago and we heard this was the area to see them.

  

Unfortunately, we didn't see any moose, but we found some pretty spots. 

We stopped back through Jackson, Wyoming for some geocaching and saw these awesome antler arches. 

Day 9 coming soon!

Summer Vacation 2012: Day 7

Thursday was our last full day in Yellowstone. This time, we explored the upper part of the Yellowstone figure 8. We started at our campground (K on the map) and headed north toward Mammoth Hot Springs (Q on the map) and the Roosevelt Arch (R on the map).

We did some more animal sight-seeing along the way.

On our drive, we came across cars pulled over at the side of the road and ranger directing traffic. Everyone was stopped to look at this sleeping black bear. I had to use the full 80x digital zoom on my camera and could still barely see it. It didn't seem worth it to me!

I love the blue in these flowers.

Antelope! 

The one on the left is in mid-air.

Mammoth Hot Springs is next to the site of Fort Yellowstone. This is where the military was orginally stationed to guard Yellowstone National Park until the National Park Service took control in 1918. There is a hotel here and several buildings and houses that were a part of the old fort.

One of my favorite parts about Fort Yellowstone is that there were elk everywhere! They didn't care at all about people, which made it hard to observe the law of staying 25 yards away.

Bill and I were walking down the boardwalk when we saw this one.

The grass was greener on the other side and it didn't care if it crossed only a few feet in front of us.

You can see the edge of the boardwalk on the left and how close it was as we passed by.

The formations at Mammoth Hot Springs are created by hot springs depositing layers of calcium carbonate. The different colors are created by different kinds of bacteria. The springs at Mammoth Hot Springs shift and change with the years and seasons.

The white areas are spots where the water has stopped flowing and bacteria has stopped growing.

You can see steam rising at the top from the hot water.

It was very sunny and hot at our first stop at Mammoth Hot Springs, so we decided to take a lunch break and wait until later in the afternoon. 

We stopped in a pretty, grassy spot with a stream.

Elk!

Rustic Falls

  

Some really cool cliffs by the falls.

Later in the afternoon, we went back to the hot springs.

Dormant hot springs.

Some of the calcium formations up close.

An active spring.

Some grass that is being covered by calcium deposits.

  So, I was standing here taking pictures when I saw no less than two people stick their fingers in this water after reading this sign...

I love how the grass grows right up to the spring.

The white section in this picture is actually the edge of a cliff.

I feel like a music video should be filmed here.

Another spring. The white part in the middle is where the water is flowing from.

A close up of the bacteria and calcium carbonate formations.

A close up of the hottest part of the spring. According to one of the pamphlets I read, the lighter the area of the spring, the hotter the water.

The top of Canary Spring.

It looks like an infinity pool.

You can see the steam rising.

Canary Spring. Tempurature: 163 degrees Farenheight

Canary Spring was my favorite spot at Mammoth Hot Springs. Quite an outfit I have there lol.

One of the springs bubbling up.

I took some pretty cool videos of Mammoth Hot Springs, but you'll have to wait until Day 8 when I post the Yellowstone video compilation to see them ;P

While the sun was setting, we took a drive to the northwest entrance of the park in Montana.

The Roosevelt Arch was constructed to commemorate the creation of Yellowstone National Park, the first national park, by Teddy Roosevelt.

An elk and an antelope.

When we got back to the Mammoth Hot Springs area, we found this herd of elk grazing on the grass.

On our drive back to our campsite, we suddenly came upon four buffalo walking side by side and blocking the whole road. They had no intention of moving for us and seemed very inconvenienced when we finally were able squeeze by them. It was a little scary since they will ram vehicles if they feel threatened. My Honda Fit felt very small next to them! Unfortunately, it was dark and I wasn't able to get a clear picture.

Check back for Day 8!