Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces

Just south of the village of Mammoth (where Tammy and I had a close-up view of an Elk herd) are the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces. The terraces are formed when hot water carrying dissolved limestone is cooled, forcing the limestone to solidify.

The first three pictures are terraces formed from the active spring. The water from the spring had moved into a stand of trees. The steam from the hot water, the dead trees and the colored terraces gave this place quite an otherworldly feel. The fourth picture is of a "dead", bleached out terrace. It is no longer supplied with hot water because the springs have moved.

Morning Glory Pool

On the walk from Upper Geyser Basin to Midway Geyser Basin, the trail takes you past Morning Glory Pool. This is a large hot spring that is a great example of how different water temperatures cause the different colors in the water. The blue water at the center, down towards the bottom of the pool, is the hottest. The more shallow yellow water, towards the edges of the pool, has a lower temperature.

This pool, however, is also a great example of how ignorance can permanently alter our landscape. Because people throw things into the pool, the vent gets clogged and the water temperature decreases in the pool. This results in less of the vivid blue, and more of the yellows and browns. The park service has actually "vacuumed" this pool's vent in an effort to keep it clear of the stuff humanity throws into it.

I never would have imagined that people would think it was okay to throw their trash into something as beautiful as Morning Glory Pool. Sheesh.

Upper Geyser Basin

If you take the time to watch Old Faithful erupt, you might as well take some time to wander around within Upper Geyser Basin. Old Faithful sits on the edge of Upper Geyser Basin, and there are plenty of other geothermal features to see, including other less famous geysers. If you are really into it, then you could hike about a 5 mile loop that starts next to Old Faithful, wanders through Upper Geyser Basin down to Midway Geyser Basin (yeah...there is also a Lower Geyser Basin...but we did not visit that), and then comes all the way back to Old Faithful. That is what Tammy and I did.

One neat thing that the National Park Service did was put little signs up to tell you the name of the geothermal thing you were next to. I tried to take pictures of the sign when I took pictures of the thing, but, alas, I was not consistent. Sometimes I took a picture of the sign first. Sometimes I took a picture of the thing first. Sometimes I took no picture of the sign at all. So, what I ended up with was a bunch of pictures for things whose name I am not too sure about. [Edit: While fixing this post to point at Flickr, I was able to identify what was in the first and third photos. The top photo is of Belgian Pool. The bottom photo is of Spasmodic Geyser.]

Whatever the name of these might be, they are pretty interesting looking. The bluer the color, the hotter the water. The more brown, orange or yellow, the cooler (or "less hot") the water. All of these are located in Upper Geyser Basin.

Old Faithful

I could not imagine visiting Yellowstone National Park and not taking the time to watch Old Faithful erupt. The National Park Service makes it very easy for you: tons of parking, lodging and restaurants within walking distance, schedules posted to help you time your visit, and even benches to sit on while you wait for the show.

Tammy and I planned our trip to Old Faithful so that we would see its eruption in the morning, hopefully early enough to miss the crowds, and then begin walking through the adjacent Upper Geyser Basin in order to see many of the other geothermal features that are neighbors to Old Faithful. Our planning worked out quite nicely, and we also got lucky. We got there early enough to beat the crowds (later in the day, it was very crowded), and managed, quite by accident, to walk up to the geyser viewing area about 10 minutes prior to its eruption.

Here is my proof that I was a good Yellowstone tourist and I took the time to watch Old Faithful erupt.

Today is Blog Action Day

I am participating in Blog Action Day today. What that means is that today's post should be on a topic that is related to the environment. The focus of this blog is already about the outdoors, so relating today's post to the environment is no stretch.

I typically do not use this blog as a platform for preaching, or attempt to beat readers over the head with how I think they should live their lives. Today is a little different. I am sharing five photos (taken during my recent vacation to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park) of what I consider to be beautiful examples of our environment. Examples that exist not because of humanity, but despite it. Our environment will not be preserved automatically. We must take steps to preserve it, or places like the ones I picture below will only exist in our art and in our memories.

Yellowstone Falls

When we hiked the North Rim Trail, we were excited (and nervous) to have the chance of observing both the Upper Yellowstone Falls and the Lower Yellowstone Falls from their brink (right as the water plunges over the edge). The wide open views and the significant elevation change was enough to make me extremely tense. The upper falls are 109 feet tall, and the lower falls are 308 feet tall. Despite my nervousness, I forced myself right up to the railing in order to look over the edge at the water plunging down to the bottom.

I suspect anyone nearby may have chuckled at my obvious, white-knuckled grip of death on the railing. On the other hand, I chuckle at the fact that I am scared of heights and have a blog titled "No Ceiling".

Anyway. I digress. I did take some pictures of the water at the top rushing over the edge, but the problem I am seeing now is that my pictures come nowhere close to capturing the enormity of the drop off. When I look at my pictures of the top of the waterfall, I get no sense of the canyon, or the change in elevation. There is nothing in the photos of the upper and lower falls to give me a sense of scale.

But that does not mean there are no pictures worth sharing. Here is a sample of the views from the hike along the North Rim Trail. These pictures are:
1. Looking downstream at the start of the hike.
2. Crystal Falls.
3. The viewing area at the brink of the lower falls.
4. The canyon downstream of the lower falls.

Storm Point

The day that Tammy and I drove south to Grand Teton National Park, we stopped at Yellowstone Lake and hike the Storm Point Trail. This trail takes you through fields, two different types of forest, and right up to and along the edge of the lake. After this hike was finished, I was trying to identify some ducks and had a very close encounter with a coyote (unfortunately without my camera in hand). Here a few photos from the Storm Point hike.

First up is a picture of a female American Three-toed Woodpecker. This is a new bird for me, and it took me a moment to realize that it was not a Hairy Woodpecker (which does not have the black barring on its sides). This picture was taken in the dark cover of some kind of evergreen forest (not pine, but spruce or fir...I am not very good with tree identification).



After you come out of that dim evergreen forest, you are looking at the actual Storm Point and the expanse of Yellowstone Lake. We were also suddenly back in the wind. Once the cover of the trees was gone, the wind was a non-stop force to be reckoned with. I had to take care to prevent my hat from blowing away, and it was difficult facing the wind and taking pictures. This is a photo from Storm Point across the water of Yellowstone Lake.



After a short walk along the edge of the lake, the trail turned back into the forest, but this time it was Lodgepole Pine. The floor of this forest was nothing but long dead and fallen trees (I think it might be from the fires of 1988, but I am just guessing). There were still plenty of live trees, however, to block the sun and protect us from the wind.

Life on a Volcano

After Tammy and I watched Old Faithful erupt, we hiked a five mile trail that explored Upper and Midway Geyser Basin. This trail was a mixture of gravel path and boardwalk that takes you past the myriad geothermal features in the area. This was an other-worldly place that smelled of hydrogen sulfide, was clouded by waves of steam, and was a confusing mix of warm wet air and cold dry air. In the middle of all of that, however, there were animals living out their lives, apparently ignorant of, or adjusted to, the volcanic workings of the area.

The first picture is of a Mountain Bluebird. These were fairly common, and their behaviors reminded me of the Eastern Bluebird that I am more familiar with. The second picture is of an Osprey eating a fish (I am assuming it is trout) while steam from some geothermal feature wafts by in the background. And the third picture is another American Bison, this one crossing Firehole River. The "rock wall" in the upper left corner of this picture is the outer wall of Riverside Geyser.

North Rim Trail - Clark's Nutcracker

On our first full day in Yellowstone National Park, we hiked a piece of the North Rim Trail. The part of the trail we hiked is a short and sweet 2.8 miles, including the walks down to the brink of both the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. What I found interesting is that the park provided convenient parking for each waterfall, which caused almost everyone to drive and park in one of those lots, and hike just the bit that took them down to one of the waterfalls. We were the exception and saw no one else hiking the bits in between the waterfalls.

At one point while we were hiking back to where we had parked our car, we found ourselves in the midst of a group of Clark's Nutcrackers. These birds are in the same family as crows, and this group of five or six was making lots of noise. At first I thought that there might be a hawk, or owl or some other animal that they were mobbing, but I never saw anything to support that theory. So, it may have just been a rowdy group, or maybe we were the ones getting mobbed.

Pronghorn

Another fairly common mammal of Yellowstone National Park is the Pronghorn. This animal is often called a "Pronghorn Antelope" (including by me, up until I wrote this blog post), but according to Wikipedia, it is not really an antelope at all.

One afternoon, Tammy and I decided to hike a trail that started in the Yellowstone Picnic Area (in the northeast corner of the park), and paralleled the Yellowstone River Canyon for a couple of miles. It was a beautiful hike, even though I was not exceptionally comfortable hiking along a nearly 500 foot drop. I personally decided that a new trail, about 5 feet further away from the canyon, but otherwise exactly parallel to the existing trail, would be better suited for my needs. When we got to the point where trail headed away from the canyon, however, we had beautiful views of a shallower section of the canyon, known as Bannock Ford, part of the Bannock Trail (photo #1).

After we turned away from the canyon and began the second half of the loop, we came across three Pronghorn that were chilling out in the meadow. We spooked them, but they did not just run away (photos #2 and #3). They acted nervous, and the male of the bunch kept making this sneezing noise, something that Tammy and I both interpreted as "don't come any closer". We obliged, and simply took photos until the Pronghorn moved away from the trail.

You Should Call This Elk "Sir"

Seeing elk in Yellowstone National Park is nearly as easy as seeing bison. The elk do not get in the way nearly as much as the bison do, but they are still found near the roads often enough, causing people to slow down or stop in order to get a better look or a photo. There was one place in particular, however, where the elk caused no shortage of angst for the park staff: Mammoth Hot Springs.

I do not know if it is the time of year, or if it is all the manicured green grass, but the little oasis of Mammoth, located on the north side of the park, has its own elk herd. To be more precise, it has one dominant stag, 15 to 20 cows that are part of his "harem", and one or two or three other stags who are looking to get in on some "cow action". The dominant stag, by the way, is the jealous type, and likes to share with no one.

Since the elk are so accessible to us humans in Mammoth, the park rangers have a constant struggle on their hands. The humans must stay back 25 yards or so from the herd, no matter where the herd happens to wander. So the park rangers are often times acting as this giant circle of traffic cops, telling people to back up, move along, watch out or whatever is necessary to keep us humans safe from that herd. Or, to be more precise, safe from that jealous dominant stag. Apparently, even a human who gets between him and one of his harem might spark his ire. Some unlucky (or stupid?) people end up on the wrong end of those antlers.

Of course, Tammy and I were part of the throng of people being herded by the park rangers as they worked to keep the human herd and the elk herd from intermingling. We were in Mammoth to grab some lunch, so we took the opportunity to take pictures of the elk. And we were lucky. Another male elk came sneaking in and was trying to "make friends" with some of the cows. When the dominant stag noticed the interloper, the chase was on. Out with the interloper! The fourth picture below gives a pretty good indication of just how large that dominant stag actually is. The interloper had no choice but to run. After the interloper had been dispatched, the dominant male came back to his harem, herded them into an even closer bunch than before, made that bugle noise that male elk make during the fall, and rubbed his antlers all over the ground. I guess in the world of elk, all that stuff means "Not in my house!".

Mr. Cuddly

Apparently I have this inclination to give animals cute names that are the exact opposite of their true nature. Earlier this summer I named a turtle "Mr. Speedy". Now I am calling a Grizzly Bear "Mr. Cuddly".

On Wednesday of last week, Tammy and I decided to drive out to Lamar Valley within Yellowstone National Park. The road within the park that leads to the park's northeast entrance takes you through Lamar Valley. Lamar Valley was billed as an excellent location to see wildlife, including bears and wolves. Since Tammy and I were staying in West Yellowstone, and Lamar Valley was on the opposite side of the park (about a 70 mile drive), and the wildlife in Lamar Valley is best found at sunrise, we had a very early start.

It was worth it. We did see a Grizzly Bear. I had to use my spotting scope, cranked up to 60x magnification, in order to get a good look. The other folks who were stopped at the same pull-out were thankful that I had my scope. I tried to digiscope a photo through my scope, but the light was just too low at 60x magnification. The first picture below was taken with my 100-400mm lens all the way out to 400mm. That little black dot in the center of the picture is the grizzly :-)

We also briefly saw a pair of wolves. They were present, right next to the grizzly, for just a few seconds, and then they disappeared. No one could relocate them after that, and there was no time at all to get a photo. That was the only wolf sighting I had during this trip. Other large mammals within Lamar Valley include the more abundant American Bison, and Pronghorn Antelope.

Ironically, as we were driving out of Lamar Valley, on our way to Mammoth for some lunch, we ran into a huge traffic jam. It was caused by another grizzly, who was very near the road. There were lots of stopped cars, and people out of their cars taking photos. We were lucky because we arrived at the traffic jam right behind a park ranger. The park ranger began telling people to move their cars, and to get back into their cars, and to use the official pull-outs instead of just stopping anywhere they pleased. This meant that we got to drive through the area immediately, as the traffic jam cleared, and Tammy got a couple choice photo opportunities from the passenger seat (including a couple with my camera...photo #2 below). We then pulled over at a nearby "official" pull-out, and I snapped a few more photos using my 100-400mm lens (photos #3 and #4).

[edit: corrected mileage for drive to Lamar and added link to Google map]

These Bison Sure Look Like Buffalo

I knew that we would see bison on our trip out west. There is a herd located on Antelope Island near Salt Lake City, and I was fairly sure we would see one or two in Yellowstone. In reality, you are pretty likely to literally drive into a bison in Yellowstone if you are not paying attention.

When we first entered the park, we thought the bison were so cool, and would slow down or stop to gawk and take photos, thinking we were seeing the best bison photo opportunities ever. I am sure we annoyed some folks who were in cars behind us. Towards the end of our trip, however, we realized that bison were very common, and we began to scoff at the other tourists who were stopping for every little bit of bison that they noticed while driving through the park.

One of the deceiving things about bison is how dangerous they are. They seem very docile, slow and pretty dopey. Statistics from Yellowstone National Park, however, record a different tale: bison charge a human an average of five times a year, compared to a bear attacking a human an average of only one time a year. That difference is probably driven by how many more bison you see (vs. the number of bears you see), and the misperception that bison are not really dangerous animals (which causes people to get way too close to bison).

Tammy and I were also wondering if there was a difference between a bison and a buffalo. The technical biological answer is "yes", but when it comes to American history, the answer is "no". That is because when early American settlers found these large bovines, they called them buffalo in error, because they were similar to Water Buffalo from the far east. In reality, the American Buffalo is really an American Bison.

Here are a selection of my favorite bison photos from the Yellowstone trip. All of these were taken from inside our car. If I were on foot and this close to these bison, I would have deserved any abuse that the bison elected to dish out.

From the "Kicking Myself" department

Today Tammy and I took a short hike adjacent to Yellowstone Lake. The very beginning of the hike, however passed through a field of low scrub, and next to a small pond that contained a few rafts of ducks. After we were done with the hike, I grabbed my scope so that I could attempt to identify the ducks in that small pond, and Tammy waited for me in the car.

I had been puzzling over the ducks with no clear identification for about five minutes, when I looked back towards the car. That is when I saw two dogs running free, coming out of the small lot where our car (and several others) were parked. And then I realized that they were not some one's pets, but two Coyote. The two Coyote kept trotting toward me as I watched them with interest. One eventually angled off to the small pond I had been watching, while the other kept heading my way, apparently oblivious (or uncaring) to my presence. My curiosity actually shifted to a bit of concern as I imagined this wild dog discovering me and not liking me one bit. I actually clapped my hands to make sure the Coyote knew I was there, but he did not react at all.

Just before I had to worry about my next move, however, the closer of the two Coyote stopped and stared at the ground. He had detected something that caught his interest. He was probably 50 feet away from me. He eventually did this jump/dive move like he was pouncing on something. I remember the dog I had while growing up doing the exact same thing when he was pursuing a mole in our backyard. When the Coyote came up with some critter in his mouth that, two chomps later, was swallowed whole, I was kicking myself because my camera was in the car with Tammy. Note to self: always carry your camera in Yellowstone because you never know what you might see.

I was saved from having to worry about the Coyote being any closer because another person was walking about with their Chihuahua, and the Chihuahua was not on a leash. The two Coyote had come back together and both had noticed the Chihuahua, and were not happy. The man who owned the Chihuahua apparently realized his best friend was about to become a meal, because he quickly put his dog on a short leash.

Luckily, the Coyote both decided to move on, leaving me with a nice memory but no picture, and the Chihuahua owner the opportunity to ponder the virtues of keeping his pet on a leash.

Even though I did not capture a photo of this particular Coyote, and its quick meal, here is a photo that I managed to grab on Antelope Island of a Coyote as it ran into the cover of tall grass. The one on Antelope Island was much much farther away than the one I saw today.