chromatic pool in yellowstone

Day 248 – Yellowstone’s Grand Loop (Part 2)

Day 248 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Upper Geyser Basin

I started out today visiting Old Faithful.  The geyser is well known because of its consistency.  It erupts every 40 to 126 minutes for a few minutes.  While it doesn’t spew as high as Grand Geyser, the world’s tallest predictable geyser, it still puts on a good show.  Old Faithful is located in Upper Geyser Basin along with 125 other active geysers.  In fact, Yellowstone is home to 200 of the 500 active geysers found in the world!

While waiting on Old Faithful to work its magic, I wandered along the boardwalk past a variety of springs, pools, and geysers including Chromatic Pool, which I found to be the one of the prettiest as I breathed the rotten egg smell of sulphur.  Chromatic Pool’s colors are created by microscopic lifeforms.  Incredibly, these organisms can survive conditions that would be lethal to most other living creatures, including humans.

ON THE ROAD Again!
grizzly cub standing

Day 209 – Cody Country: Shoshone National Forest and Beyond

Day 209 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways
Grizzlies in Grand Teton National Park

For a rainy day spent mostly in VANilla, I couldn’t have wished for anything better.  There had been reports of a mama grizzly bear with two cubs roaming around the Jackson Lake Lodge area.  On our way to our hike yesterday, a handful of cars and rangers were camped out alongside the road, so this morning around 7:45 I ventured to the same general area along with several others.  I was willing to wait up to an hour, but much to my pleasant surprise, I only had to wait about five minutes.  During the next 15 minutes, I think I took 83 shots.  Every now and then, I just set the camera down and watched both the bears and the spectacle of photographers.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!