Yellowstone Day 1

We started out early in the morning, it was a cool 52 degrees F. While there seems to be traffic here, in this picture, it's actually not that bad - we're just congested here as we approach the gate to the park.
This was actually "Soda Butte"which our hotel in Cooke City was named after. Its a smelly lime/sulpher deposit. Around the back we ran into another buffalo, lying in the grass.

Landscapes as you will see, vary dramatically in the park. You have lush meadows and rolling hills, dense forests and canyons. The park is about 120 miles across and we're sort of travelling from the northeast corner to the mid-west side.

All kinds of really unique plant life in the park too...these thistles below stand about knee high and are serious looking things...

I couldn't resist...had to turn off and go see what the petrified tree was...now I know, looks like a stump. I guess its gated too so no one can take any more pieces of it...it used to be a California Redwood.

In 1988 approx 10% of Yellowstone's 2 million acres caught fire and burned. You can see vast swatches of land that look like this below. Interestingly, they have not replanted these areas, they have signs that say Naturally restored by Wildfire and Wildlife.

This is the 'lower falls'in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone...the falls and the Canyon are incredible.

Rocks in this area take on their texture from the ground which is a giant volcanic basin called a Caldera - about 2/3rds of the park is essentially the top of a 60 million yr old volcano. We see more of this with the geysers in Yellowstone - Day 2.

More of the Canyon farther down the road...

These shots taken at a the Porcelain Geyser Basin...stinky but pretty cool. There were small geysers like the one on the left and a bunch of smaller steam vents all over.

The minerals steaming out of the vents had coated nearby trees, so they looked winter white, almost like they were covered in snow.

Some of the vents have different colours from the minerals and the micro organisms that live in the water...

The little pools are so blue they look very inviting. Mike felt the water and thought it might be around 100 degrees or so, like hot water in the hot tub.

We headed back down the road on our way into West Yellowstone for the night...

Passed a field by a stream and saw some resting Elk along the river bank...

By now it was about 2:30pm and we were done for the day. More Yellowstone, including Old Faithful were on the agenda for today...up next in Yellowstone Day 2.