Yellowstone National Park

Drove the hour from Belgrade and stopped at the edge of the Park to get accommodations for the night and decided to stay two nights at the One Horse Motel.  How could one not..

I left for the Park around noon and planned to be back for supper.  The weather outlook wasn't the greatest with rain predicted.  It's about 15 miles into the park, then 17 miles to Old Faithful. Everyone needs a photo of Old Faithful right?  Well it's the second photo, I'm having a little problem getting the images sorted so this will have to do for now.

The first photo is the edge of one of the many thermal spring-fed pools that seem to dot the landscape in this Park.  The white edges are just chemicals left behind as the water evaporates.  Talk about hard water!  If you look into the pool you can see bubbles of steam that rise to the surface.

And here's the picture of Old Faithful.  There had to be a few hundred people waiting the hour or so for the eruption to happen. i was luck, only ten minutes or so, and I still had an un-obstructed view.  They say it used to blow a lot higher, well over 100 feet; today was not a great blow.

This poor tree used to grow where the pool wanted to be so all the heavy salts and other toxic stuff from down below just did the tree in.  It's well pickled so it should last a long time.  Pretty against all the white salts, isn't it.

The next shot is of Steamboat Geyser.  The last time it really blew was over 50 years ago, but then, it shot a plume of super-heated water over 200 feet in the air for more than a full day!  That would be neat to see, but I can't wait that long...

The Park suffered from intense forest fires a few years back, mostly in the area I traveled.  It's quite strange to see thousands upon thousands of tree snags surrounded by young saplings.  Some of the new growth consists of larch and aspen, both turn yellow at this time of year.  

I ended up stopping for a severe thunderstorm since you couldn't see to drive.  Thunder and Lightening everywhere and suddenly, it hailed! Enough to cover the road for a short time!  That sure cleaned off the car!

I ended up at Old Faithful around 4 pm and arrived back at the hotel by 7 pm; you really can't be in a hurry around here.  I'm glad I'm here in September; the big crowds aren't, even though there were cars and people everywhere.  I was lucky and never had a problem parking which can be a horrendous problem during the summer.

On the way back out of the Park, I drove the same road I had come in on.  At one point, the road was bumpy with new sawdust and wood-chips; it seems the storm knocked over a very large tree that ended up blocking the highway, so they chopped it up!  Good thing I wasn't there when it fell!