Making do....

I was hoping to do sunrise at West Thumb Geyser Basin in Yellowstone Park, but got there a little late.

The sun was already cresting the horizon.

Things were moving fast and I felt lucky to find this lodgepole pine tree to use as a focal point for the images.

By changing my location and staying low I was able to take advantage of the beautiful color and light.

All and all I was pretty happy with what I did silhouetting the pine tree.

Just down the road I found some more trees, but the sun was getting pretty high by then.

Lucky for me, the steam from the thermal features really helped to make interesting images.

Finally, I worked my way further along the lake to one of my favorite views. I keep going back to these lodgepole pines year after year and they're always good.











Electric Peak ......

I last walked up Electric Peak in northwest Yellowstone in 2001. I meant to go back and finally did. Here are some photos of the walk up.

 

The trail starts from the park road across from the Bunsen Peak trail and crosses sage brush flats heading towards Sepulcher Mountain. I saw very large grizzly tracks on the trail within a half mile of the road. The bear had been going the opposite direction and I never actually saw it.

 

You can see Electric Peak ten miles away on the top right of the frame

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After about three miles the trail went along the base of Sepulcher Mountain.

 

 

 

 

 

It rained the night before, and the grass and sage was wet in the morning. I stopped after about four miles in one of the beautiful meadows along the trail to change into dry socks.

 

 

 

The trail only went through a bit of woods near the Cache Lake spur trail.

 

 



 

Just before getting to the Gardner River I turned right and headed towards Electric Peak.

 

 

 

The trail had been fairly level until I finally got onto the mountain itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I chose a comfortable pace and kept moving along a spine of rock towards the summit.

 

 

 

It was near 90 degrees and hot on the way up,

 

 

 

but I was glad to be there and the views just kept getting better.

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually I found a little shade behind some rocks where I hid as I took off my socks and boots and put them in the sun to dry. It was all good. I had plenty of water and my body was feeling great.

 

 

 

While I was drying my stuff a couple of young guys came up the trail and passed me. They were the only other people I saw on the mountain that day.

 

 

 

I had plenty of time, the weather was good, and everything was going great.

 

 

 

 

 

About 300 yards and 100 vertical feet from the summit I came to a fairly vertical rock face with natural steps going up.

 

 

 

I stopped there and drank some water. One of the guys who had passed me was on the summit, so I waited until they came down and visited with them.

 

 

 

There was a trail down and to the left of the rock face, but they said they went up and across. " It's only 300 yards and the first 100 are the toughest, then just look around and there will always be a decent choice." they told me.

 

 

 

With that, they headed down and I headed up. 

 

Half way across a rock catwalk of sorts, nothing was feeling right so I sat down where I was to consider things.

 

After 45 minutes I decided against the summit and went down the rock stairs to the spine of the mountain.

 

 

 

I just sat there awhile.

 

I didn't think I'd have another chance to do this again and wasn't feeling good about giving up.

 

 

 

 

 

So I started back up the stairs, and again nothing felt right..

 

I decided to head down.

 

 

 

It was a hard decision to make, and I was disappointed in myself, but the walk was easy, and I saw three bighorn sheep in the distance.

 

 

 

I was surprised how good I felt physically. Everything was so much easier than the last time I was there.

 

 

 

 

 

I found a patch of snow lingering between rocks and put some on my neck to cool off. I made a couple of snowballs and threw them over the cliff on the other side.

 

 

 

Sepulcher Mountain looked small in the distance.

 

 

 

The walk out was easy and I spent the afternoon at Yellowstone lake swimming and then making some photos at sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two days later I visited with a ranger at Old Faithful who offered more information about the actual summit. So I hope I get the chance to try again, and if I do I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Upper Geyser Basin afternoon...

I shot Old Faithful erupting in the morning and went to the visitor center to see the projected times for some of the other geysers.

 

I really wanted to get Riverside in decent light and hopefully with a rainbow. The prediction board said Grand Geyser about 5pm and Riverside around 7pm. With that I had a plan.

 

I had a couple errands to run so I drove the 32 miles out to West Yellowstone, got some gas and groceries and made it back to the Upper Geyser Basin by about 4pm.

 

 

 

It was warm so very little steam was visible from Castle Geyser's cone but the big clouds above were beautiful.

 

 

From where I was at Castle I could see the crowd gathering at Grand and started to work my way in that direction.

 

 



 

I was stopped short by the sky and colors of Crested Pool. The scene seemed idyllic and I made some more images.

 

 

Just a little further down the boardwalk is the Firehole River.

 

 

 

I took a little time to capture the bridge, river, and clouds.

 

 

 

Grand Geyser is just up the hill a hundred yards or so.

 

 

 

I got there a little before the geyser erupted and had time to check the light and choose my spot.

 

 

 

Grand actually erupts for several minutes so I wasn't rushed and could move and compose a bunch of photos.

 

 

 

 

 

It had been a few years since I last photographed Grand Geyser so I was pretty pleased with the afternoon so far.

 

 

 

As soon as Grand finished I started working my way towards Riverside and got delayed by Grotto and Rocket Geyser erupting.

 

 

 

The sun was just barely making it through the trees and reaching the geyser's cone and steam.

 

 

 

As I was shooting Grotto I realized Riverside was erupting and took off running.

 

 

 

I didn't want to miss Riverside. I hadn't photographed it in good light in years and this was my chance.

 

 

 

During the peak of the eruption if I found just the right angle a beautiful rainbow was visible near the geyser cone.

 

 

 

 

The eruption lasted longer than I remembered and the sun stayed out from behind the clouds so I was able to capture a lot of rainbow images. I had forgotten just how many cool photos were possible at the Upper Geyser Basin.

 

I was feeling pretty good about the work I had done as I started walking back towards Old Faithful. I was hoping to get it erupting near sunset.

 

 

 

I stopped to capture Sawmill Geyser on my way.

 

 

 

It's possible to shoot from almost every side of Sawmill so I was able to shoot towards the sun as it erupted as well.

 

 

 

I didn't want to miss a chance at Old Faithful at sunset so I kept on walking.

 

 

 

Sunset came and Old Faithful still hadn't started to erupt. So I made images of steam rising from it's cone as a sun dog formed in a beautiful sunset sky .

 

 

 

 

I visited with the few other people who had stayed to watch the eruption. After the sun dropped below the horizon it cooled off quickly.

 

 

 

And finally, Old Faithful Geyser lived up to it's name one more time. Shooting super heated water and steam more than 100 feet into the sky.

 

 

 

I stayed for it's entire eruption and wondered what the Park Service would do if the geyser ever stopped going off. The Old Faithful area is highly developed with several hotels, stores, a gas station, a visitor center, and large parking lots to accommodate all of the visitors. All of it is focused on and built around this most famous of geysers. Well, whatever may happen it wasn't today.

 

Today I had a fun and productive afternoon in a beautiful and unique area of the world's first national park.