Monday, August 26, 2013

We once again spent our Sunday I Yellowstone and spent the day doing Geysers and hot pools. Some of the pools will heat to 2200 degrees ad when you stand by they the air temperature goes up 20 degrees.

Every pool has a different color and the reflections are amazing.

Looking out over Lake Yellowstone.

This hot pool is on the Lakes edge

Black Pool looks as if it has no bottom that can be seen.

One edge of Black Pool, love the colors.

A close up of the edge, the water is 20 feet deep here.

A few steam pots.

This geyser goes off every few seconds, better than Old Faithful , just not as high.

Just steaming away.

Reflections

A really large steamer.

The black sand is really volcanic glass ground down.

Never stops erupting .

Bubbling away

Went almost to 15 feet each time.

Mineral run off into the warm stream.

Sulphur  deposits on the hot spring edge. 

Another angle.

The sign informs about a 7.5 tremor  here a few years back.

Just so beautiful.

The blue water run off turns yellow.

Another small geyser that deposits calcium every time it pops.

This goes off every 4 minutes.

And it's done again.

A final big pop.

A really hot bubbler.





A little rain and a Rainbow.

Loved the colors.

Our sunset this evening.

The sun dances it's way down.

The sky is almost on fire.

It's done.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

        We did a few museums today and they were OK. Usually they are boring but most of the themes are of our Original Americans and they do a really good job showing how they lived and survived on what nature provided for them. Once again we missed the way we all should  have treated our environment and the way we have mistreated ourselves. Sorry about this but we also watched Gasland 2 last night and was a little depressed about what's going on in PA right now with fracking and how we are allowing it to happen. OH well, you can't win when government has their hand out all the time.
        On a better note we will be back in Yellowstone tomorrow and all will be well in our world once again for a few more days.                                                                  G
We did a few of our local Museums today and they were OK.

lots of bronze

Bronzes of all extinct birds.

more bronze

A great piece, to bad I couldn't take pictures in the American Indian galleries.

This Totem was awesome.

An Elk and his lady.

Friday, August 23, 2013

               Our last weekend went by so fast that the next thing we know it's Friday again and have to try to figure out what we will do with our time this weekend. Any way we did go into Yellowstone last Sunday and we did get an early enough start to finally get to see Mammoth Springs . This section of the Park is the North Entrance and lies in Montana and is just loaded with many hot vents and mud flows that at times it looks totally unreal. There are so many in some areas that it looks like everything is on fire but in these areas it's just steam. When we started into the Park we knew we would see some smoke but it was just incredible as to how much there really was in the area. We stopped in the North entrance Visitor Center so I could get my NPS passport book stamped and tried to watch the visitor center film but could only sit there for a few minutes as the amount of smoke in the building was very thick. In these parts very few of the buildings have AC as it is usually quite cool here all year long but this year it has been different. The evenings still go down into the 40's but not so during the day as we have hit 80 everyday for the last two weeks. Even when it is not humid it is still warm. As we toured the Northern points of Yellowstone we saw many areas were closed and they were using them to stage the Fire Fighters and their equipment. There were Park Rangers set up in many of the turn outs to explain how they were fighting the fires and what areas were closed to the public. Many of the camp grounds that are normally full on weekends were shut down not due to the fires , but were closed to prevent more from starting. Some of the fires were caused by dry lightning but several were started by careless campers not tending to their camp fires. Not much you can do about this as it's human nature . Still we saw some more Awesome sights and hope to get back in at least one more time before we leave to go to the Beach in 5 weeks . Really looking forward to it. It will also start a new adventure as we will be helping out at the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge after our Beach week is over and that is where we hope to spend next summer.                                   G
We were in Yellowstone last Sunday and this is smoke from the big Idaho fire as we got closer the North Entrance of Yellowstone.

The haze is smoke.

A look at Mammoth Springs. Between the steam and the smoke it was very beautiful.

This smoke is from two of the fires inside Yellowstone in the Montana section of the park.

We did some hiking on Monday on the Elk Refuge.

Just nature at her best.

A female Elk browsing at the roads edge.

The Roosevelt Arch at the North Entrance of Yellowstone.

About a mile in from the North Entrance was this sign.

That is not snow but is a large mineral deposit from one of the many Volcanic Vents.