Current Photo Album
This section is temporarily under construction. I have 6 rolls of film that were shot in and around Yellowstone NP this summer. I started out with the goal of photographing some elk and buffalo with my new 80-300mm zoom lens. I didn't need a zoom lens because an 1800-2000 lb. (850kg) buffalo walked in front of my car. It was perhaps 9 ft. (3 m) from me in the car. I always stop and watch Old Faithful erupt; however, to stop and watch Old Faithful erupt and then get to watch a geyser erupt that was new for me was a special treat. This all happened on the first afternoon that I drove in. I didn't even have a motel room key at the time. The room was still being cleaned. I had started to joke that why was I staying for 4 more days if I had met most of my goals on the first day. The only thing left was to visit Canyon Village and watch the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River.
I find that I can normally show up at Old Faithful and have 30 minutes more or less to an erruption. I have, on really rare occasions, showed up just as it errupted. Everytime it errupts you see something different. It is the week after Labor Day and the tourist count hasn't started dropping yet. You just don't see families, which makes it easier to get around.
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When I decided to visit Yellowstone, I wanted to see some elk at a point where I could get a reasonable size image. This scene actually occurred before I got to Old Faithful. I have them in the order of importance that I assigned before the visit.
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I shouldn't have worried because the rest of my visit turned out to be equally interesting for me. The temperatures ranged from 40+ to 90+º F. (~10 to 32º C.). I saw a forrest fire. I got to watch the Giantess Geyser erupt. Giantess only erupts 2 or 3 times a year and being there when it erupts is a very special treat. The weather wasn't ordinary because one day you are running around in shirt sleeves and the next day we were being snowed on. I was wearing the warmest coat I brought with me and wishing that I had thrown the parka in like I had thought about doing.
This is the Beehive Geyser from a distance. I am just across the road from the Old Faithful Inn. This is a new geyser. I wasn't close enough to get the shot I wanted but a new geyser is still a new geyser.
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This Bison kept walking slowly towards where I am. At some point it would pay attention to me and then get territorial. At that point, it would be a really serious threat to me. The park points out that more people are hurt by bison than any other animal. It is standing less than 30 feet from me, which is less than 10 meters. This scene occurred on my way out of the park from Old Faithful.
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It was not one of my generic visits to the park. The road from Madison Junction to Norris was closed. This meant all of my travels to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was a long slow drive. A full hour longer at 35 mph. If you want to take a photograph of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, you have to get there before 11am. Around 11am, the falls goes into the shadow of the rocks on the south side and it isn't nearly as interesting view. Don't get me wrong. It is still worth seeing even when it is in the shadow. It just isn't as good as when the sun is shining on the water. In the more scenic shot, you can still see fire damage on the distant hill.
The Sulfur Fire, which was just down river from the Mud Volcano, was a small fire when I visited it. The 1st day was warm and there were two fire fighters standing in the parking lot in Hayden Valley just watching it. It would flare up and you could see the flames from across the river. It was a natural fire and was left to burn. This is the only way to reduce the combustable ground cover. The ground cover is what produced the huge fire of 1988. It is much better to have a small fire than one throwing flames 150 feet into the air. A fire like that can throw a 6 inch branch 1.5 miles. This is what made the fire of 1988 so dangerous. In order to stop a fire, you have to stop the head of the fire. When the fire is throwing burning material 1.5 miles behind you, it is more likely that you will be burned to death than you can stop the fire. At this point, it was around 350 acres but not too much later, it grew until it was around 3,500 acres. You could watch it burn on the Yellowstone Fire Cam.
The Giantess Geyser is one of the larger ones in Yellowstone Park. It is also very infrequent. When I saw it, it didn't go 350 feet in the air but it did errupt for an awfully long time. The other point you can't appreciate is that the throat of the nozzle is around 60 to 72 inches in diameter or about 1.52 meters.
The trees continue to grow back in the areas burned by the big fire of 1988. Some of them are much less than 3 feet high, which seems to be the typical height. Then, there are some that are 15 feet high standing side by side to the smaller trees.
The images I find interesting will go here when I have finished scanning them.
The previous current photo album is now the "Photo Gallery 3".
Photo Gallery 1
Photo Gallery 2
Photo Gallery 3
Last revised: .Thursday, June 27, 2002
Copyright © by Kent B Stewart, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001.
