Yellowstone National Park - Day 1

i'm splitting these up a bit, anyway...

continuing from last time we make the relatively short drive toward yellowstone, climbing upward. we pass a gorge, but my pictures of it are terrible. eventually we start to descend:



we cross a bridge and have a lovely view looking back into the valley:



lewis falls:



flower:



we decide to make our way to old faithful and check that area out, stopping along the way to take cool lillypad shots:





and a shot of kepler cascades:



i saw a beaver below us at the bottom of the falls, but couldn't get a shot off in time.

we arrived and had some time to kill until old faithful erupted, so we browsed for some knicknacks and grabbed a snack then headed outside for the show:



we then walked up the hill to the upper geyser hill to check out the geysers there. i don't think the pictures do justice to how much these geothermal areas feel like setting foot on a barren planet. the ground is grey and ashy, it seems abnormally hot, and you get anwhere from a hardly any odor to choking sulphur stench.



anemone geyser:







bacterial mat:



beehive geyser:









heart pool:



fairly deep:



the lion group:





ear spring:







doublet pool:







blue star spring:





our friends decided to go to the inn while we wanted to walk the trail to morning glory. castle geyser:







giant geyser:



morning glory pool:



grotto geyser:



grand geyser (i think):



other side of castle geyser:



this was early/mid august and we regretted not grabbing some extra water or putting on sunscreen, even though we made out ok. we headed back to the old faithful inn for some beers. old faithful inn:



from three floors (i think) up:



we then made our way to west yellowstone and our hotel. along the way we saw some wildlife:





day 2

<span class="post_was_edited">On 2009-08-06 at 19:41:01, mundhra asked to smell your meep</span>