Yellowstone: Views and Flowers

I've saved my favorite part of Yellowstone for last. Wait, did I already name a favorite part? Well, this has to tie with it, at least! :) I was awestruck by how many beautiful, pristine forests and vast meadows there were in Yellowstone, and best of all the views from high on the mountains. I think I was just surprised at how much wilderness there was, and the beauty of it. I knew we'd love the thermal features. But I wasn't expecting the views!

The valleys around the Madison River as you drive in from the west are really beautiful. I love that wide, slow-moving river with the trees crowding both sides!

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Yellowstone: Mammoth Hot Springs

I said Norris Geyser Basin was otherworldly? So was Mammoth Hot Springs! How on earth did the right conditions for these colorful travertine terraces manage to align all in one area? It's incredible. 

The bright white stepped areas are where the hot spring has stopped trickling down or changed course. In the areas where the water is still flowing, there are bright orange and yellow colors from the bacteria and archaea in the water. The signs said that Mammoth Hot Springs aren't "drying up" (lots of people see the parts where there's no water flowing anymore and assume they are), but they change course and the water level varies from season to season. I like seeing the contrasts between the wet and dry terraces!

This is one of those places where I couldn't stop thinking about fractals. As you looked closer, you could see steps and terraces in even these tiny ripples!

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Yellowstone: Grand

Before we went to Yellowstone, Sam taught us about some of the great landscape painters of the Hudson River School, including his favorite, Albert Bierstadt, and of course Thomas Moran. Moran painted gorgeous pictures of Yellowstone when he explored it with the Hayden Expedition. You've probably seen his famous picture of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone:

(picture from here)

I love it! And you can see practically this same view now, from the spot in Yellowstone called "Artist's Point." The picture is so stunning, and yet the actual view is even more stunning!

You can see the magnificent Lower Falls from Artist's Point. It's so enormous! And beautiful!

Goldie loves her Daddy.

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Yellowstone: Obsidian Cliff

We had read about Yellowstone's Obsidian Cliff a few times when learning about rocks and geology, so we were all anxious to see it. But it seems like it's not really an "encouraged" place to go anymore! It's by the side of a road where you can't walk easily, and the informational sign has a very scolding tone about how many people have taken obsidian from the cliff and ruined it for everyone. (For the record: I think it's sad too. But I'm weary of didacticism and lecturing in public spaces. I suppose maybe it works and makes people want to forsake their sins and joyfully obey…but I doubt it.) You aren't supposed to climb on the cliff itself, so we didn't.

There was such a beautiful meadow across the road from the cliff. You could see big chunks of obsidian that I guess had been blown out of the volcano. As you probably know, obsidian is formed from lava that cools so quickly, it doesn't have time to form crystals, so it's smooth and glassy. We've been to places in Utah where you can find small pieces of obsidian, but it's amazing to see whole boulders of this, let alone a WHOLE CLIFF made of it!

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Yellowstone: Midway Geyser Basin

The Midway Geyser Basin is where you can see the Grand Prismatic Spring, which I'm sure you've seen pictures of before—it's an enormous hot spring, with absolutely amazing colors from the heat-loving bacteria and archaea that live along the edges! Sebastian was particularly excited about seeing this spring, which he called affectionately "the GPS." :)

Driving into the basin, there was steam coming up everywhere! I loved this about Yellowstone. It just never felt like a drive through a normal countryside. You couldn't forget that you were somewhere strange and amazing!

This was a nice geyser, "Flood Geyser," that we saw erupting just off the road. It was especially pretty against the backdrop of those rolling, wooded hills!

From Flood Geyser you could look up toward the Grand Prismatic Spring. Look how huge it is! And look at the color of the steam! You could actually see the reds and blues in the steam above it.

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Yellowstone: Upper Geyser Basin

Upper Geyser Basin is where you can see Old Faithful. I was afraid since there are so many people, and even a viewing area with benches to sit on, maybe it wouldn't seem that cool. But it WAS cool! We loved it! It's so amazing to see that much water and steam just burst out of the ground—and to think of how consistently the chambers below are filling and pressurizing and emptying.

It felt like a long time waiting for Old Faithful to start. There were lots of little false alarms and small spurts of water first. But the main eruption is so BIG!

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Yellowstone: Island Park

We rented a cabin in Island Park, Idaho (about 45 minutes from the West Entrance to Yellowstone) for our trip, and we loved it. I love staying at rental houses so that we can all fit comfortably and have doors that can close off places for naps, etc. And the area was so beautiful! Mountainous and wooded. We were happy to have such a lovely place as our home base.

There were some pretty views of the Tetons, driving up past Rexburg.

I loved these bright yellow fields! I remember seeing this all over in England. Is it canola?

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Yellowstone: Bear World

Abe has always loved bears, and ever since he was little he's wanted to go to Yellowstone to see a bear in the wild! He did get to go on a bear-tagging trip with his Grandma once, but they didn't find many bears and the one he did get close to was sleeping. Safer, of course, but a bit disappointing for a bear-lover like Abe.

Anyway, summer is the wrong time of year to see many bears at Yellowstone, I guess—too many crowds. I think you do glimpse them occasionally but I wasn't too hopeful. Then 

Sam's parents told us about this place—Yellowstone Bear World—in Rexburg, and it seemed like a great way to make sure we saw at least SOME bears, for Abe's sake. I even signed him up to feed the baby bears!

And honestly, I wasn't expecting much. Maybe some sad-looking bears lumbering around in a pen, and a petting zoo or something. But as it turned out, we loved the place! Abe was in heaven feeding these little cuties their bottles. He got to pet them and snuggle them and everything! And they were such hungry, furry, playful little cubs!

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Yellowstone: Norris Geyser Basin

I haven't been to Yellowstone since I was a little girl, and I've been wanting our family to go for years now! I knew the kids would love it. We finally set aside a time and scheduled it for this last June. As it turned out, our spring and summer got crowded with a couple other trips as well, and even though it made logistics a little tricky, I was kind of glad we had the rental near Yellowstone already reserved, so we weren't tempted to put it off again! I planned a Geology Unit in our homeschool for May and June, and even a little mini-unit on just Yellowstone right before we went, so we were all extremely excited to see the things we'd been learning about!

It was hot and crowded, of course. But there are also lots of good things about going in the summer, like having all the roads be open and no chance of snow! And, of course, that was just when we could go, so no use worrying about it!

We stayed not quite a week (spending two days driving there and back, one day near our cabin, and three very full days in Yellowstone itself), and though we could certainly have stayed longer, we felt like it was a pretty good amount of time and we saw most of the things we wanted to in the park. I'd love to go again sometime in the Fall, though! I feel like I could never tire of that strange and beautiful landscape.

I was totally taken aback by the huge, forested expanses like this one. I didn't remember anything except Old Faithful from when I was younger, really, and I wasn't expecting such vast wilderness! 

Even though we'd learned about WHY all this geothermal activity takes place here, and we'd seen hundreds of pictures and watched dozens of videos—it still took our breath away to be driving along and then suddenly see a scene like this:

Steam rising up from the earth, morning light streaming through. It was spectacular. There are so many geothermal features that aren't even "notable" enough to appear on a map or a guide—but they are amazing all the same! I really loved just driving along and looking out at everything we passed.

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