Here are some random Yellowstone Park pictures.  The rodeo, last night was a ton of fun.  More about that another time, too!  got lots of pics to sort through from that, as well.  Meanwhile, enjoy a little taste of Yellowstone.  

My favorite picture, so far, is this first one, of a geyser called Lion.  Sunset is a nice time for geyser pics, if you are in the right spot.

Here is Old Faithful.  It is pretty cool, but not the highest or most spectacular geyser in the park.  Its claim to fame is its regular eruptions.

 Mountain bluebirds are colorful little chaps!

Above is our first elk sighting.  There were many more before we left the park, but this remained our closest encounter.  Lots of American Bison in the park, too.  Here is a handsome bachelor.  We saw several herds with young, too.

There are four types of thermal features in Yellowstone.  The geysers are the famous ones.  There are also hot springs, like the colorful blue pool above.  They bubble and steam, but don't erupt.  They can also be pretty acidic, some are stronger than battery acid at 1.0 pH and up to almost boiling temperatures.  Directly above is a picture of the 3td feature, mud pits.  They are interesting, but like the other thermal features smell strongly of sulfur.  They are fun to learn about, but hardly something you can call attractive...in fact they are sorta gross.  Last, but not least is the fumarole.  It is a steam producing vent - most of it's moisture comes from the surface (rain and snow) and when it hits the hotter rocks below it produces steam.

Do you know what a continental divide is?  A divide is where the water switches direction.  In the case of the continental divide the rain drops on one side of the divide will make their way to the Atlantic Ocean and the raindrops that fall on the other side join river systems that go to the Pacific.

Surprising (to me, anyway) how much snow we have seen, in July, that has not melted yet. 

This cute little critter is a yellow bellied marmot. I am sure I would not consider it cute, if it were near my garden, but am free to enjoy, since it isn't!

This gal is the first Grizzly I have ever seen (and the only one, to date).  Got to watch her for about 20 minutes!  From what others were saying, she thought she had a baby elk to feed on and she was looking for it.  Turns out the rangers decided that it was too close to the road, and they had moved the carcass off further and out of sight, earlier in the day. She has a collar on, so folks in the know knew it was a she.

We got a private horseback ride at Roosevelt Stables.  Two wranglers and us, plus these handsome boys, Russell (my steady steed)  and Stephen (Roland's fella).  One of the wranglers was also Steve, so Roland had to be careful what he said to whom. 

Below is a black bear that was eating some plants not too far from the side of the road.  People are not always so smart around wild life.  They seem to think that nothing can happen with these animals, no matter how many warnings the park gives.  We saw no harm come from it, but people do seem to try to approach some of the animals closer than they should.

I have a pretty good telephoto and can then photoshop crop the pictures to appear that I am much closer than I really am (that is why the grizzly shot is not as clear as some...she really was quite far away...a tripod would have been really helpful). 

Roland's favorites are the waterfalls.  Here is one of the many we saw.

If you look at previous photos of the hot springs or geysers, you will notice a white substance around them.  It is a form of silica called geyserite.  It forms new land very slowly.  When you see the Beehive, below, you will see a feature that has been erupting for a very, very long time. 

These hot springs, at Mammoth, are different.  They bubble up through limestone and new surface area forms very quickly.  The little stalactites you see on the edges, and in fact the whole hill are growing at the rate of about 1/2 inch per day.  This creates an ever changing landscape.  This also contrasts to the stalactites in eastern US caves, where the water is not hot.  They are also limestone, but are forming at rates closer to an inch over 100 or more years.

I am amazed at how many different things you can see in one park.  I had to laugh when we were talking to a ranger who said that we didn't really have anything (like a park) this big in the east.  My chuckling retort was that we do...we call them states!  Yellowstone is about the size of 4 Rhode Islands.

The most exhilarating event at Yellowstone was waiting, like a kid at Christmas, for Beehive to go off and hoping that Old Faithful would erupt at the same time.  Beehive only erupts twice per day, at this time, and the window is about 2 hours, so you have to wait and watch for the indicator vent to start bubbling.  Once that happens you have a pretty reliable 20 minute wait for an eruption that is bigger and more spectacular than Old Faithful. The photo above is Old Faithful, as seen from Beehive.  It erupted only minutes before Beehive, and below, you can see Beehive erupting with Old Faithful still emitting some vapor in the background. 

Lion (the opening shot of this blog post) had erupted shortly before either of these, so it was an exciting evening!  The lighting was best for the Lion eruption, so the pics are more spectacular, but Beehive spouting over 200 feet into the air was, by far, the most exciting of the eruptions to watch.  By that time it was around 9 at night and there was only a dedicated, small crowd to watch it.  Notice the base of the geyser, that resembles an old fashioned beehive and gives it its name.  Formed of geyserite (silica) it has taken a very. very long time to get that big.