Not just Old Faithful at Yellowstone...much more

Old Faithful is what most people think of when asked about Yellowstone but we found so much more when it comes to geysers. Hot springs, lava pits, mud pits, odd formations, fantastic colors....and, of course, the geysers.

We posted about 60 photos online so that you can view them at your leisure...there's no way we should be putting that many photos in a blog post.

https://plus.google.com/photos/100376105788369441882/albums/5892139888053559425



Here's a sampling of what we saw as we walked around the geyser fields and the hot springs fields. Of course, any one of these is much hotter than boiling water temperature.

Loved the sides of this hot springs pit. This was the only one we saw that had these formations. 

Bacteria growth.

More bacteria growth.

Okay, okay.....I put a good number of photos in here...couldn't help it. They were all so amazing.

There is bacteria that thrives in the extreme heat of the pits....and produces these colorful images. 

Looks so peaceful, you want to jump in but....that would be the end of you.

Old Faithful...every 75-85 minutes....off it goes. A big crowd starts gathering to watch. We saw it about 4 times as we walked around the geyser field.

Closer look at these sides of this hot springs pit. 

As you can see, every image was unique so, as we walked through the fields, (there were more than a dozen throughout the park) we never got bored.

So, we've shown the wildlife and now the geysers, hot springs, etc. Next up will be the breath-taking waterfalls. Stay tuned!

Kim and Steve

Oh, here's the link again should you want to view all the images:


https://plus.google.com/photos/100376105788369441882/albums/5892139888053559425

Yellowstone Wildlife

We came to Yellowstone for the geysers and Old Faithful and ended up taking more photos of the wildlife (animals) than anything. They were everywhere! What a treat to see them in their natural habitat.

Trails? We don't got to have no stinkin' trails when we got a road we can walk on.

We saw herds up to 45 in quantity.

Having a ball making a dust cloud...kinda reminds me of Pig Pen in the Charlie Brown cartoon strip.

...and lots of calves...

Mom!  Wait up!

This is looking out our passenger window.

Awwwww....cute huh?

Interesting that baby horses (colts) look like a horse and baby cows (calves) look like a cow but baby bison (also called calves) don't look like a miniature bison. Cuter for sure.

Mountain Bluebird, Male

Mountain Bluebird, Female. Babies inside maybe?

Raven...very large...and they were a lot of them.

Sandhill Crane. So awkward on the ground...

 but very very horizontal and sleek when flying. (It's right in the middle of the photo flying from left to right).

Great Blue Heron

Mallard Duck, Male

Canadian Goose

Marmot hiding in the rocks

A herd of Elk was at this stream almost every day.

Coyotes

One of the most fun we had was watching all the tourists (like us) get all geeky when they saw an animal.

This is called a "Bear Jam" because the people come to a screeching halt and pull off the side of the road (well, most of them anyway) to take pictures. Rangers, like the one in the orange safety vest, are constantly trying to prevent auto accidents....and to make sure no one hassles the animals.

Our new additions to the family. "Buff" on the left and "Smokey Junior" on the right....and proud new parent, Kim, in the middle.

We'll get to the spectacular waterfalls and the plentiful hot springs in the next blog post.

Kim and Steve

Craters of the Moon

Now here's a place I've always wanted to visit...not quite sure why...but we finally made it a few weeks ago. Great place! Especially if you're into Lava....there's plenty of it.

Here's a blurb from the National Parks' website:

Past

Between 15,000 and 2,000 years ago, the Craters of the Moon Lava Field formed during eight major eruptive periods. During this time the Craters of the Moon lava field grew to cover 618 square miles. The Wapi and Kings Bowl lava fields formed contemporaneously about 2,200 years ago.

http://www.nps.gov/crmo/index.htm

618 Square Miles! That's equal to 60 miles times 10 miles!

You can see how large an area the lava flows are from this aerial of southern Idaho

Lava everywhere you looked. And so many variations. They are mostly based on these two:

Some grate trails through the lava fields where you can get a close look at the variations.

I don't know...call us Lava Geeks but we could not get enough of it.

THEN there were the cinder cones...that are formed by small bits of molten rock shot out from a cone. This one I climbed up.

This is the largest (tallest?) volcano in the park.

This is an older one...you can tell by the trees that have started to grow on it.

This is one of the views from the top. These are Splatter Cones. They happen when the lava flow is starting to end. You can see the size of them by the school buses. Notice in the distance how far the lava continues.

Here is one of the Splatter Cones from ground level. You can walk up and look right down inside. 

The Great Rift opened up in the earth causing multiple volcanoes to erupt.

You can see the volcanoes in the distance...each one spewing lava.

You can walk through these lava fields and look at the volcanoes along the Great Rift.

We hiked about a mile to get to one of the lava tubes. This is one that collapsed...not a pretty site.

Kim has always wanted to go inside a lava tube.....she appears to be having second thoughts.

This is on the inside. You can see the scale by the lady sitting on the right. The HUGE rock pile is the ceiling that used to be there where the light is now coming through. You can understand our concern when walking inside. 

Some spectacular vistas around the area.

We had such a great time at the Craters that we came back a second day to take more hikes and learn more.

More information can be found here:

http://www.nps.gov/crmo/index.htm



All the photos are posted here as well:

https://plus.google.com/photos/100376105788369441882/albums/5882798832962125681