I left the West Yellowstone around 5:30 today. I saw three herds of elk today, one in town, along with Trumpeter Swans, Marmots, water falls, geysers, lakes and more. A very relaxing day as it should be.
Taken at 5:20 and hand held...click to see the stars
This was around 6:30. You can see how much smoke there was today
This was the same herd of elk that I saw yesterday. But earlier and there was another bull trying to claim part of the herd. It was so early that I had to increase the exposure.
Elk herd relaxing
The bull senses the other bull
The bull senses the other bull
Not now you don't
Not on my watch
Running away
Running away
Maybe another day
I missed the Grizzly's but the reflections and the mist on the lake made for great pictures. It was so quiet and peaceful.
You cannot get away from the smell of sulfur, especially at Roaring Mountain. How many pass this point and do not stop or read the sign about the microbes that live in this environment,
The Sheepeater Cliffs are a series of exposed cliffs made up of columnar basalt in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. The lava was deposited about 500,000 years ago during one of the periodic basaltic floods in Yellowstone Caldera, and later exposed by the Gardner River. While I was at the cliffs I ran into this marmot.
At Swan Lake I watched Trumpeter Swans for an hour and I could have stayed all day. The pictures speak for themselves.
Mammoth Hot Springs is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of travertine in Yellowstone National Park (Travertine is a form of limestone deposited by mineral springs, especially hot springs.) adjacent to Fort Yellowstone and the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District. It was created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate (over two tons flow into Mammoth each day in a solution). Because of the huge amount of geothermal vents, travertine flourishes. Although these springs lie outside the caldera boundary, their energy has been attributed to the same magmatic system that fuels other Yellowstone geothermal areas.
I spent almost 2 hours just walking around this site. The elk in Mammoth could care less about the tourist.
Travertine mountain
Liberty Cap
Algae living in the warm pools
have tinted the travertine shades of
brown, orange, red, and green
It looks so desolate but it is so beautiful
