Yellowstone National Park: Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand Prismatic Spring.

Yellowstone's largest hot spring, 370' in diameter.

The deep blue of the pool and the rings of yellow and orange thermophiles surrounding the pool, plus the run-off slopes made this the stand out attraction for all of us.

The second visit, Fred and Craig climbed the hill behind the spring - no trail, a scramble straight  up and down, thin air of the high altitude and Fred came back with these incredible photos.

Shawni helped me up to a point on the same hill, despite the dust and all the mosquitoes biting us, what an amazing view. What a place. Love at first sight.

Hectic climb straight up the hill, but certainly worth the view!

Yellowstone National Park: bubbling boiling mud

Family, bison and bubbling mud, what a place to be together.

Mud Volcano, a hydrothermal zone along the Grand Loop and an bleak, ominous place of bubbling mud that made me feel anxious.

Interesting that hot springs and geysers did not have the same scary impact as did the mud.

Roiling muddy water, rather than boiling. Escaping gases cause the mud to roil.

Vast mud cauldron

The remnants of the Mud Volcano.

Dragon's Breathe, noisy, steamy and water that rumbles underground and comes to the surface in waves.

Yellowstone National Park: herds of Bison

Hayden Valley meadow.

The broad, rolling meadows of the Hayden Valley from the Grand Loop was a good spot for sighting the herds of bison in the park with their young.

We also saw lone bulls in interesting places - near hot springs, bubbling mudpots, steamy fumaroles and even walking across the road.

One of the best giggles for the day was Shawni's encounter with the bison crossing the road right in front of her, Craig was nervous for her, yelled out which gave her a huge fright and she high stepped out of the way with a scream.

Huge molting bull, taking it easy in the afternoon sun.

Yellowstone National Park: Wildlife

Cottontail

Among the natural wonders of the park we loved finding the wildlife from the stately Elk to the little gems like an American Marten, the Mule Deer, a Jackrabbit,  a Cottontail, loads of cheeky Least Chipmunks and Yellow-bellied Marmots.

Yellow-bellied Marmot

A fierce looking American Marten

Gentle scene on the Madison River

Magnificent rack, Elk set in the desolation of the fire in the mid 80's

Yellowstone National Park: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

Lower Falls, 308' roaring with winter snow melt.

The American explorer John Muir wrote of the High Sierra's:

'We are now in the mountains and they are in us…'

I so appreciate his sentiment, each time I am exposed to the mountains whether its the Coast Range, the Sierra Nevada's, the Cascade Range, the Rockies, I am in awe and feel energised by their majesty.

Day 3 in Yellowstone and we drove the Grand Loop.

One of the highlights of the park is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River with its impressive waterfalls and steep colorful canyon walls.

Yellowstone River from the South Rim Road.

Colorful canyon walls from blinding white to deep ochre.

Yellowstone National Park: Norris Geyser Basin

Porcelain Basin, Norris Geyser Basin

The large acidic Norris Geyser Basin has the display of the hottest, oldest and most dynamic geysers. 

Steamboat Geyser is located at Norris and is the world's tallest geyser, erupted last on the 31 July 2013 reaching a height of a 30 story building. It has frequent smaller eruptions from 3 to 14 meters  we watched the smaller eruptions and missed the more impressive 10 meters. I was secretly hoping for the biggie to celebrate my upcoming birthday…oh well, Vixen was just as much fun.

Steamboat Geyser