Sunset in Yellowstone, lighting up Clepsydra Geyser

We arrived in Yellowstone on our 2019 trip around sunset. After setting up camp at the Madison Campground, we went to the Lower Geyser Basin, a.k.a. the Fountain Paint Pots, to look around before it got dark. We got to see Clepsydra Geyser in its nearly continuous state of eruption as the sun was turning red on the horizon. Clouds floating overhead helped reflect some of the sunlight back down. The way the western clouds were shaped made the fiery colors take on the shape of two prongs or maybe a duck. At least that's what it made me, Rick, think of. At this stop along the park road, this feature is the farthest out on the boardwalk.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Butler Wash Ruins in Bears Ears National Monument

This is one of the amazing and interesting features in Bears Ears National Monument, Utah. We stopped for a short hike in Butler Wash, within the Bears Ears, on our way to Natural Bridges National Monument, in southern Utah. At the head of Butler Wash is an Anasazi ruin estimated to be at least 800 years old. The hike to the overlook is only about a mile, where there is a railing to protect hikers from the cliff that drops into the wash. When you're there, you wonder how those ancient people could move around from level to level for one thing and get all that material brought in to do the construction of the walls. It's a fascinating site.

It's sites like this that are why this area deserved protected status as a National Monument.

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Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Entering Yellowstone National Park...Yay!

So we're happy to enter Yellowstone's western entrance and give that a thumbs-up.

But then when it's time to leave, we give that a thumbs-down and wish we didn't have to go.

We took these twin-selfies, using a Samsung Galaxy S III on a selfie stick, in August 2016 at West Yellowstone at the entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs with hot water spilling over the edge of the terrace

View of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park from the trail with hot water flowing from underground and spilling over the edge of a terrace that's constantly building up from the minerals, calcium carbonate, the water deposits. Steam rises from the water as it emerges from underground. The minerals form where the stream of water drips down, leaving an "icicle" of minerals. A couple of the chunks of mineral having broken off in the past and you can see the "icicles" point upward near the left-center of the screen. Another chunk is lying on its side with orange bacterial growth at the center.

This feature is in a state constant, gradual change and can engulf trees, and even parts of the terrace that are older, or the flow can shift and leave a section of the terrace dry and subject to erosion. This picture was taken with an ISO of 100, f/8, and 1/800 sec. The shutter speed helped to capture the drops of water spilling over the edge of the upper terrace.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Female Elk Walking Into the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park

This female elk had just crossed onto the opposite bank, and after a while looking around, decided to come back to the near bank. There were a couple of young elk and another female in the area hanging out while a huge crowd stood by the side of the road photographing them. Later on they decided to lie down in the tall grass and almost disappeared from view.

Taken at ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/8, and 118 mm focal length. roughly about 660 mm (35 mm equivalent).

Remember it's not just a picture, it's a story!

City of Rocks National Preserve in Idaho has the Window Arch, a rare granite arch

The City of Rocks is an out-of-the-way National Preserve in south-eastern Idaho where granite spires, domes, and loaves seem to pop out of the rolling plains. Historically, this area is famous for the pioneers on the California Trail heading west and having this landmark serve as a special stop along the way. Many of the pioneers signed their names on the granite rock using axle grease. This place is also famous with climbers for some of the clean granite rock that makes for excellent climbs. We climbed one of the easier climbs in the area before taking lots of pictures. Since granite rarely forms arches, we made a point of looking for this feature, Window Arch. It's right next to a parking area for camping off of the main road through the area. Window Arch appears to be on the verge of falling down. The horizontal pieces of the arch have split and are offset from each other. It looks like either or both sides could some day soon slide past the other and collapse. Granite might form arches when sheets of granite flake off in a process called exfoliation. If both sides of a dome-shaped granite rock flake off, there may be left behind the highest part of the dome or loaf left behind, thus making an arch.

This image was made by merging two images together to increase the amount of detail in the final image. Both images taken at ISO 100, f8.0, 1/180 sec. with a Canon Rebel xSi, with a focal length of 18 mm. Rick made a point of composing this image so that the sky and top of the tree would be clear of the underside of the arch.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Sunset silhouette of the Teton Range in Grand Teton NP

A sunset profile of the Teton Range in Grand Teton National Park. The peak named Grand Teton is the highest peak, third from the right.  The sun's rays are flaring over the southern end of the range.  The highest peak under the rays is Buck Mountain and the canyon to the right that is the low point is Avalanche Canyon. The timing worked out for this image as Bob was driving back to camp and saw the effect the peaks were having on the light from the setting sun, so he used one of the turnouts along the main road through the park.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Fireweed blooming at Teton Pass, Wyoming

Fireweed blooming at Teton Pass at the southern end of the Teton Range in Wyoming and Idaho.  Fireweed gets its name from the fact that it tends to be one of the first plants to come back into a burned area after a fire.  It has an interesting habit of starting to bloom at the bottom of the flower cluster and working upward.  This photo shows blooming flowers at the bottom while buds are waiting to bloom on top.

Teton Pass is at an elevation of 8,432' and is near the border between Wyoming and Idaho.  The nearest large town is Jackson, Wyoming  near the southern end of the mountain valley called Jackson Hole.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Black-tailed deer face, with antlers in velvet

This black-tailed deer was trying to get a good meal of grass seeds while numerous cars full of people were stopping to watch him in Yellowstone National Park. Deer and other related animals, like elk and moose, grow new antlers every year. During the time the antlers are growing, they're covered in a fuzzy skin called velvet. When the antlers are done growing, the velvet dies and the deer will sometines be seen rubbing its antlers against trees or shrubs to get the velvet to come off. The velvet might hang on in long strips and you can sometimes see blood on the antlers where the velvet still had a good blood supply. After the breeding season, the antlers will fall off from the base and the male deer will be antlerless until the next spring into summer, when the process starts over again. Female deer don't grow antlers, but the related caribou do have antlers for both sexes.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Marmot from Grand Teton mountain range, Yellow-bellied Marmot (ground hog of the mountains)

The Yellow-bellied Marmot lives at higher elevations in the Rockies, Sierra Nevada, and other mountain ranges. It's a large rodent related to the ground hog that lives in burrows among boulder fields. We saw this one during a backpacking trip along the Teton Crest Trail on the Death Canyon Shelf after crossing over the Fox Creek Pass. It didn't seem to mind our presence at all and we were able to get this shot from a distance that didn't cause it any concern about our intentions. There had been thunderstorm activity on this day and it seemed the marmot was trying to warm up on the rock.

The Teton Range in particular has a high incidence of melanism among the yellow-bellied marmot population. Melanism is a condition where the animal's skin and fur has a lot of pigment and appears all black. It's the opposite of albanism, in which an animal has no pigment and appears all white. We did see a melanistic yellow-bellied marmot on this day. It's shown below for comparison. On previous trips, we've seen a regular colored yellow-bellied marmot and a melanistic one playing with each other near their burrow entrance.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Le Trois Teton - Grand, Middle, and South Teton as seen from Hurricane Pass, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.

In Grand Teton National Park, most visitors view the Teton Range from the east and look westward. In 1999, Bob and Rick backpacked nearly the length of the Teton Range on the west side. Along the way, we viewed the highest of the Teton Range: Grand, Middle, and South Teton to our east. Along this route, we crossed over Hurricane Pass in the afternoon and had the range illuminated from the west as we looked eastward.This trip took 5 days and we covered around 55 miles, ending at the Jackson Hole Resort and taking the tram down to the valley.

It's not just a picture, it's a story!

Bison grazing at the National Bison Range, Montana

The American Bison once sustained the Plains tribes, but their numbers were dramatically reduced by a capaign of extermination. They have a few places where they are holding on, and many tribes have established small herds on their reservations. In Montana, the Federal Government has set aside land for several species of grazing animals, including the bison at the National Bison Range.

This bison is showing his summer fur, where the back half of the body is uncovered to stay cooler. As winter approaches, the entire body will be covered in fur in order to stay warmer. We drove through the National Bison Range in June of 1994 on our way between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. This image was taken while in the safe confines of our car. We also saw pronghorn and deer.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Castle Geyser and rainbow

Castle Geyser is in the same geyser basin as the world-famous Old Faithful Geyser, the Upper Geyser Basin, in Yellowstone National Park.  Its eruptions are among those that the Park Service can predict and they post those predictions at the Old Faithful Visitor Center and on an informational plaque in front of the geyser itself.

Castle Geyser typically erupts every 10-12 hours with a 20 minute hot water phase reaching up to 90 feet in height followed by a steam phase lasting from 30 to 40 minutes.  This photo was taken during the steam phase of Castle's eruption and a light wind was blowing water droplets from the steam column to the right where they formed this rainbow.

Remember, it's not just a photograph, it's a story.