Saturday 21st May, 2006

Yellowstone National Park is in Northern Wyoming - about a 10 hour drive from Calgary. I jumped at the chance to see this volcanic park both for its geysers and its wildlife. Two and a half days in this park really didn't do it justice.

Above: Many of the thermal pools were very colourful. The colours come about from different bacteria that lives in the water at different temperatures. The blue parts are hotter than then orange parts. The water in all these pools was very clear, allowing you to see right down the plumbing of the system. The above pool is about 3 m across.

Below: This is one of the most spectacular thermal springs in the park, with the great name of Morning Glory! The colours were so much more intense than most of the other springs.

Above: A thermal spring just metres from the shoreline of Lake Yellowstone. The snow covered mountains in the background represent the far edge of the Yellowstone caldera, yet it stretched just as far in the opposite direction behind me.

Below: A large and very active Mud Pot bubbles away.

Above: Steamboat Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin erupts very sporadically, from 4 days to 50 years between eruptions, but when it does it can shoot water up to 120m into the air making it one of the world's tallest geysers. Here, Steamboat Geyser is in a dormant phase but still throws out the occasional jet of boiling water.

Below: When I was watching a group of deer it was clear that they wanted to cross the road. This was the first one to do so.

Above: This one wanted to cross the road as well. It kept looking over towards some of its mates before it plucked up enough courage to make the dash across the road.

Below: An Elk stag with an average set of antlers. These antlers look fuzzy because they are covered in many tiny hairs, often referred to as velvet. The antlers start growing back every spring.

Above: Only about 15m from the deer in the previous photo sat this buffalo resting.

Below: Buffalo-jam straight ahead!

Above: As I approached the herd of buffalo in the previous picture two of them suddenly decided it was a good idea to start butting heads. I got these shots from the safety of my sedan, about 2m away as I slowly rolled past!

Below: You can see how close I was from the shadow of the car!

Above: A Buffalo calf crosses the road with its mother.