Yellowstone National Park - Part 3

The next morning the skies looked dark and gloomy.  Thanks to the Slough Creek Campground vortex, we verified that, if anything, the weather forecast had worsened, particularly the second storm.  So we headed out.

By the time we hit Tower Junction, it was drizzling, and the Beartooth Highway sign said “Closed.”  A half hour later as we gained elevation, it was a mix of sleet and snow.  And it stayed that way.  

The previous night I was able to book us a campsite at Madison campground for all but the first night.  So we headed into West Yellowstone to find us, of all things, an RV park.  Which was fine because we needed the shower!

Things cleared up a bit the next morning, but we were to face several days of constantly changing weather.  Which for a photographer is generally good because weather often makes for interesting light, but you really have to be in the right place at the right time.  And the drive up the Madison River from Yellowstone’s West Entrance was the right time.

Ann had spent some time looking at her images from the previous trip as well as others on-line, so she had a few places she wanted to visit.  With no real agenda, we just started exploring, starting with the Firehole Lake Loop, an area we were to visit several times in our final few days in Yellowstone.

Operating out of Madison Campground was a lot easier than from West Yellowstone.  Any time you can cut half an hour’s drive from the start of your day, do it!  The next morning we decided to head north and it didn’t disappoint.  We remembered a few grassy areas from our last trip out there and managed to catch some lovely morning light of the surrounding mountains.

One of the things that really caught me in this part of Yellowstone was the feeling that the earth was alive and breathing.  Perhaps because the temperatures made the smoke more prominent, but regardless of the reason why, that became a focus of my image making.

While we knew that the road directly north to Mammoth was closed for the season, we decided to drive up past the Norris Geyser Basin area where we’d stayed before to see what was along the still-open part of the road.  I’m sure glad we did, because in addition to several beautiful lakes, we came across this area that really gave meaning to breathing earth.

The next morning we started at the Artist Paintpots where the early morning chill and light added to the breathing earth theme.

We then headed south for the rest of the day catching several of the different areas.  We intentionally avoided the main area of the Grand Prismatic (where I thought I’d want to spend most of my time, but didn’t once I was there) to go to areas with fewer people.  Still, that didn’t mean I didn’t get the opportunity to do a few compositions!

Our final day at Yellowstone began with a bang.  A cold front had moved in and we’d gotten up early to take advantage of the frost on the ground in an area we’d scouted previously and required a bit of a hike to get to.  

Ann’s focus was on a creek and some trees, which I would eventually get to, but I couldn’t pass up the images along the way.

I eventually made it to Ann’s location, just as she was finishing up and starting to scope out new images.

We photographed until the sun finally melted the frost and had a variety of images to show for it.

On the way back, we swung by the Grand Prismatic, not to photograph the main area, but to photograph parts that flow into the Firehole River.  Pulling out my telephoto lens, I was able to focus on a detail of one of the outlets that cascade down to the river.

We explored the area some more and eventually wound up at the Fountain Group at the Lower Geyser Basin.  The biggest problem with that boardwalk area is that it’s a prime stop for the bus tours.  Ann and I decided to leave the tripods.  In fact, I went out with just my old X100.  

On the far side of the boardwalk, Ann became fascinated by a cluster of geysers - one of them new this year, and the other that would spontaneously start gushing for a few minutes and then stop.  Just as we were about to leave, it started gushing again.  I looked off in the distance and warned Ann that weather was about to hit.  She was determined to get a good shot, and she did. However, by the time we made it back to Beast we were soaked by sleet and rain.

When I said weather, I meant a wall of weather as you can see approaching from the left below.

That pretty much marked the end of our trip.  The rest of the day was full of rain and sleet.  The route from the Lamar Valley to the west part of Yellowstone got dumped by snow.  We were smart to avoid the weather.

We started the next day early, with a little over 11 hours left on our audible book (one of the Monster Hunter International series).  Long story short, who knew that with a fun book being read to you that you could drive from Yellowstone to Springfield in a single day?