Images from Yellowstone National Park Part 1

I never did post images while I was in Montana - but Sunday, 28 June 2009 was one of the LONGEST days I'd every had and I was not on call! And here it is, a bit late, but it is never too late for the best things in life!

It was just one day, but what a day! It was the best day, the most incredible day. It was the third day of my Montana trip - granted, it wasn't in Montana for the most part. It was, in fact, a three-state day - Montana, Wyoming and Idaho (although we were so late coming out of Yellowstone that only the tiniest amount of time was spent in Idaho.

David and I woke up around 0300, left the house at 0430 and arrived at the North Entrance in Montana around 0800. There I am standing in front of the North Entrance. It was gorgeous - the mountainous landscape, the crisp, clean air, it was nothing like New Jersey. Late June here is hot and often humid. There was not a bit of humidity and early in the morning, the temperature was just about 60 F/17 C. We drove through into the Mammoth area and at first it was just mountainous area with a river alongside us. In front of us was Mammoth Hill, which looks just like a sleeping [woolly] mammoth. I could see the head with the huge flapping ear, the shoulders sloping down to the rear of it. The Mammoth Hot Springs are fed by the Norris Basin waters and while outside of the Yellowstone caldera, they are still as active as anything else in the park.

We came to the main park area, and had breakfast just across the square from the Mammoth Hot Springs. It was a lovely meal, just a few people besides us. The building was yellow outside and quite lovely inside. The building itself is a complex, and modern-looking, but the restaurant was more old-style building and quite historical. We ate very well, knowing we'd burn off the energy fast.

When we walked outside, there were elk everywhere, hanging out on the lawns of the houses, walking about the roads, laying on the hills and walking on the hot springs areas. They really had very little fear of us. They wouldn't walk up to any people, but they did not run off, either. Clearly the animals are well aware that they are not in danger from us. There were even smaller yearlings about that had no fear of us.

The springs themselves were so different from anything I'd ever seen. The mound that is Mammoth Hot Springs was a long, low, flat-topped hill comprised of white and orange areas. There were some red spots from the metals and the algae that grows in the hot water. There was steam rising off the many layers of the hill. Some areas had bubbling water and others had small rivulets of hot water. The colours and odor of sulfur were strong. I walked all over the boards to see everything I could of the springs. These were the first hot springs I'd ever seen, so it had to be scrutinised carefully. As strong as the sulfurous rotten egg smell was, I was not going to let that bother me.

6,200 feet above sea level, far from any ocean, the magic of finally seeing that which I have studied, read, dreamed and avidly look upon pictures was finally in front of me. Heat and steam rising off the acidic water flowing over the travertine-created the white steps of the hot springs. Welcome to my first trip to an active volcano.

The top of the Mammoth Hot Springs is the closest I will ever get to seeing the Moon up close. If you ignore the colour of the tree in the foreground and the mountains in the background, it is the uniform grey and silver and cratered surface of the Moon. I know NASA won't be calling me anytime - who wants to put a 42-year-old with muscular dystrophy on the Moon? - but this was close.

I have to go back. I saw just the smallest fraction of the park for the 14 hours we were walking in it; and the eight and a half hours on the road. There is so much more to see.

From the Mammoth Hot Springs, we went through the mountains and on our way, we saw elk, wolves, a prairie dog... the wildlife was so rich. We hoped to see a grizzly or back bear but luck was not on our side for that. I did see plenty of pine trees scarred by wandering bears who stopped to hone their claws.

We stopped at the Upper Falls, then wended our way down to the Bleached Cliffs. The Bleached Cliffs are etched from the Yellowstone River flowing through it. The yellow colour is from the rhyolite. I stood there on the platform above the Lower Falls looking over a vista that has no comparison anywhere on Earth. It was incredible. Magic. And it was, for that moment, mine.