Piccola's Projects: WY (Yellowstone Nat'l Park

Back to Yellowstone! I passed through the Roosevelt Arch from Gardiner to re-enter the park, which was created in the late 1800's at the main entrance by Fort Yellowstone.

Continuing on counterclockwise, I was leaving from the northwest part of the park and heading east toward Tower-Roosevelt.

This is Undine Falls. Not a bad start to the day!

There were lots of clouds and fog covering, making the morning a bit more eery than it would have been otherwise.

This petrified redwood is a clue to a warmer, damper, more violent Yellowstone landscape. When a chain of volcanoes erupted 50 million years ago, they triggered massive landslides into mountain and valley streams. The rolling mix of ash, water, and sand buried whole forests. Before the trees could rot, abundant silica in the volcanic flow plugged living cells, creating "forests of stone".

Here is Calcite Springs. It looks like a normal canyon other than the steam coming out the side of the cliff. In cool weather, wisps of steam rise from Calcite Springs. The Yellowstone River is below the canyon and flows above a volcanic fracture zone that allows geothermal discharge to reach the surface.

I am now at Tower-Roosevelt (the northeast part of the park) and am heading south to Canyon Village - another incredible area of the park!

The first stop down this stretch is Tower Falls, a beautiful waterfall coming out of the cliffs. Like many of Yellowstone's waterfalls, Tower Fall began as a low ledge at the junction of two different bedrocks. Under the fall is a tough volcanic breccia. Just downstream from the base of the fall, the Yellowstone River enters a narrow, swift-running gorge. Tower Creek cannot downcut fast enough to keep pace and is left hanging high above the river.

Continuing the drive south, there were more bison and elk wandering around on the grassy plains.

It had just snowed the day before. Ironically enough, it will snow again this evening. Reminds me of the song "sometimes the snow falls down in June"...

This is at the top of Dunraven Pass (8859 ft).

The eastern ridgeline - where I am now - is the rim of a huge crater. Here, a volcanic eruption blew cubic miles of glassy material into the atmosphere. Then the crust collapsed, forming a caldera. Bare patches in the forest reveal Washburn Hot Spring, where superheated water boils up along caldera fracture lines.

These, according to my sister's husband, are Lodgepole Pines. They are tall, very thin, evergreen trees. It doesn't take much for them to fall over. In many areas along the side of the road, you can see hundreds of these pines littering the ground!

Here is Canyon Village - the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone". The Bring of Lower Falls was the first trail I followed.

This is a view from the top looking over the edge of the waterfall.

Here is the view from Lookout Point. There was a bit of hiking up and down hundreds of steps to reach the bottom of some of the falls. For others (like this one) you could drive right up to the lookout points. It was a great combination of short workouts and driving, and was very beautiful!!

It's called "Yellowstone" National Park because of the yellow and gold rock (or "yellow stones") that make up these cliffs.

Grand View was another great view (hence the name) and showed just how wide and impressive the canyon is. You can't tell from the photo, but it's massive - just look at how small the Yellowstone River is far below.

The "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" varies from 800-1200 ft in depth, 1500-4000 ft wide, and 24 miles long. The upper 2 1/2 miles is the most colorful. Hot spring activity has continued through the ages, altering the lava rock to produce lovely colors, largely due to the varied iron compounds.

This view comes from Inspiration Point, and provides another colorful side of the canyon.

There was a nice 2 mile hike (View of Silver Cord Cascade) from this boulder through the forest and out along the canyon. Being alone, I didn't feel like hiking it (or I could admit to being afraid of running into a grizzly).

I completed the Lower Falls section of the canyon drive and am now heading toward the Upper Falls section of the drive.

A waterfall forms where in a river channel where harder rock meets softer rock that erode more easily and quickly. Here, volcanic and hydrothermal activity have created the 103 ft Upper Falls.

I went for a short hike along South Rim Trail.

Then, I went on the very steep (at 8000 ft altitude) hike down to the bottom of the falls (Uncle Tom's Trail). Shortly after 1900, Uncle Tom Richardson took visitors down into the canyon along this trail. Originally with 528 steps and rope ladders, it now descends 328 steps (3/4 of the way down the canyon) for an excellent view of the Lower Falls!

The rainbow was visible all the way down the steps and made the trip down well worthwhile! :-) How lovely!!

One of the most popular spots at Yellowstone (second probably only to Old Faithful) is Artist's Point. It was very crowded, but worth the parking hassle. Not only can you see the falls from here, but the canyon opens up and the gold and yellow rock mixed with the waterfall and river are breathtaking!

At the end of Canyon Village, I drove down to Lake Village. I was hungry, but didn't see a good food spot here and considered driving out of the park before stopping for a nice relaxing sit down dinner.

These are some photos from the drive down to Lake Village.

Ten times more acidic than lemon juice, Sulphur Caldron sits on the edge of one of the most active areas of Yellowstone's buried volcano. Sulphur rich gasses rise furiously here, filling the caldron with sulfuric acid.

It is hard to believe that much of Yellowstone sits inside the caldera of one of the largest volcanoes in the world! The volcano has erupted at least 3 times and Yellowstone is full of signs that volcanic activity is still very much alive below ground.

Bubbling, churning, and steaming are 3 words that describe Yellowstone, with thousands of mudpots, fumaroles, hot springs, and geysers - all of the things that make this park unique from the others.

This is from the Mud Volcano area and is known as "shake 'n bake" or "Cooking Hillside". Covered by dense forest until 1978, the hillside changed dramatically after a swarm of earthquakes hit the area. In spite of being jolted again and again, the trees remained standing. However, they met their demise shortly thereafter when ground temps soared to 200 F!! Roots sizzled in the superheated soil and trees toppled over one by one as steam rose eerily between the branches.

Here is Mud Geyser.

Frothing and fuming as heat and gas rise from Yellowstone's magma chamber, this muddy pool churns and cooks. Shaken again and again by earthquakes, the temperature beneath it rises and falls, transforming Churning Caldron.

This mudpot (Black Dragon's Caldron) roared into existence in 1948, blowing trees out by roots and forever changing the once quiet forested hillside. A park interpreter named the new feature for its resemblance to a darkly colored "demon of the backwoods". For several decades, it erupted in explosive 10-20 ft bursts of black mud. Over the years, it has moved 200 ft to the southeast and become relatively quiet.

This is the Grizzly Fumerole.

Mud Volcano spewed mud into the treetops in 1870, shaking the ground with each eruption. Two years later, it was a pool of bubbling, muddy water. Mud volcano had blown itself up!

This was another favorite of mine. :-) An unknown park visitor named this feature Dragon's Mouth Spring around 1912. Water frequently surges from the cave like the lashing of a dragon's tongue. Until 1994, this dramatic wave-like action often splashed water as far as the boardwalk. The rumbling sounds are caused by steam and other gasses exploding through the water, causing it to crash against the walls of the hidden cavern (though it sounds like a dragon). I took a short video, but it didn't really capture the waves or sound well.

Lake Village is the start of Lake Yellowstone. I drove down the west side down to West Thumb.

West Thumb Geyser Basin was at the southwest side of the lake. What makes this so unique is that the thermal features (geysers, hot springs, fumeroles, etc) are on the shore of the lake with the mountains in the background. Below are some of the more popular (and beautiful) features in this basin.

Twin Geyser:

Abyss Pool:

Black Pool:

Big Cone:

Fishing Cone (which is actually under water in the lake):

Seismograph Pool (167 F):

Bluebell Pool:

Thumb Paint Pots:

West Thumb's shoreline has crater-like contours and is much deeper than the rest of Yellowstone Lake. A massive volcanic eruption 125,000 years ago caused it (a crater within a crater). Despite that, it is still thermally active. You can see the hot springs, mudpots, and geysers steam and perculate along the shore, with high temperatures.

In winter, holes in the thick ice indicate hot spots in the lake bed where thermal features bubble up. Sea otters often fish in these warm holes.

Perforated Pool:

Twin Geyser:

I stopped at Steamaboat Point on the way back up the lake's edge.

The surface water of the lake is cold enough to kill by hypothermia, but the lake bed beneath is a hot spot. At the bottom of this part of the lake (Mary's Bay), heat flow measurements are some of the hottest in the park.

More lodgepole pines were on the other side of the road from the lake. As you can see, most end up on the ground from the winds.

I went across Fishing Bridge at the north part of the lake and exited the park through the East entrance toward Cody, WY. There was a mountain pass that I had to cross to get out of Yellowstone. Part way through I noticed it was really foggy and looked like it was raining. The higher up I got, I realized it wasn't rain, it was snow. I drove through snow (in the middle of June) which was slippery and scary being on a mountain road with steep incline/declines.