Yellowstone National Park, Day 2 - Trip West

Sorry for the wait, but here's day 2 at Yellowstone. :) Hope you enjoy.

This was a pretty blue pool in the "Painted Pots" section of the park.

Buffalo. Gotta try black and white sometimes.

This photo and the following one are both pictures from the first day... but I forgot to post them.

A closer view of the buffalo... from the first day.

This is part of Mammoth Hot Springs in the northwestern part of the park, close to Montana. The yellowed color is from the boiling sulfur water.

An area that was once active, this section of Mammoth Hot Springs has been bleached and left caverns.

This was a cool little pool that was also at the Painted Pots.

I finally was able to see a coyote at the park, I'd been wanting to the first day, but didn't get the chance.

This is the TRUE yellowstone of the park. It's close to the Lower Falls, where the park obviously got its name.

This was an elk we saw at Mammoth Hot Springs.

I found it interesting that this elk (and perhaps its friends) had traveled this same route multiple times prior to this occasion. You can evidently see a trail leading up to the top of the ridge.

Here's the elk with a little more color to complement the stony setting.

This was another elk we saw... with fuzzy antlers. :D It was much cooler, and I was able to get closer as well.

Personally, I liked the hazy effect the geyser created. The evaporation provided a nice eerie effect.

Here is a more direct shot of the previous geyser.

Here is some flowing water at Mammoth Hot Springs. As you can see in the top left, part of the rock is really grey and white. The sulfur in the water has flowed there before, and left it bleached.

I just couldn't get enough of the mountains. I don't see them very often, so I really enjoyed seeing such tall, jagged, and otherwise pointy mountains. :)

This is one of my favorite shots from Yellowstone. It was just a fairly big geyser aside a slightly smaller one. The clouds in the background prefaced by the classic colorful rocks in the foreground made for a personal favorite.

Alas, all good things come with a cost. While my family was off enjoying this beautiful view of the Lower Falls, I was stuck in the van with a headache. Regardless, I'm glad I can see the view through this shot. Photo creds to my dad, Ron Cole.

Here is another aspect of the diverse Mammoth Hot Springs.

A closer view of the previous photo.

More mountains! Yay!

Old Faithful! I know, right, not as cool as it seems. But, before giving it a bad name, I'll act in its defense. It was very COLD, windy and rainy when it erupted. Because of this, it evaporated almost immediately, with no clear height, but only evaporated water. It was cool just to see it in real life, but I'd like to go back when the weather is more favorable.

Mountains, mountains, mountains... <3

Guess what? Another mountain. :D

This was as close as I got to seeing the Lower Falls. It was awesome, however small a window I was looking through!

This is a very interesting blue pool, one of the more famous ones...

This is below the Lower Falls with the river and yellow stone walls.

This volatile red mud was very very cool. It was erupting almost constantly.

This was another bubbly pool. There was quite a few of these types of things at Yellowstone.

It goes without saying that Yellowstone was very cool, and definitely one of my favorite places we visited on this trip. I must say, however, that it is an experience quite different from most others. It's not every day you see mud erupting out of the ground, and water boiling out of the crust. That's all for now, see ya! :)

- Brett Cole Photography

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