No wonder Yellowstone was our very first national park. It has so much of everything! It is geologically active with geysers and sulphur springs. It has its own “grand canyon”. It has mountainous views, prairies, rivers, waterfalls and wildlife like grizzly bears, black bears, bison, elk, moose and more. And just to its south is the Grand Teton range of mountains. The John D. Rockerfeller Highway runs north to south between these two parks.

There she blows! Old Faithfull right on schedule!

We encountered several sulphur fields and springs. Here are some:

But the prismatic spring is the most spectacular spring of them all. The water is a bright aqua with sulphur colors surrounding it. Ken took a moderately difficult hike up a cliff to get the aerial view, while I shot the views at the spring itself. There are specially adapted microbes that live in these hot temperatures and are aiding scientists to learn about possible life forms on other planetary objects.

The Yellowstone River has carved quite the canyon through the park. The walls are multi-hued. There’s a beautiful waterfall to photograph (upper falls and lower falls).

View above the falls looking down

Close up at the falls

Yellowstone River downstream from the falls

Colorful canyon

Next, we went looking for all those wild animals that Yellowstone is so famous for. We especially wanted to see the iconic buffalo (bison) herds. Do you think we saw them?


Or what about bears?

Or prong horned antelopes, this hemisphere’s fastest animal?

Yup, we saw them. BUT, not at Yellowstone! We’ll save that for another post.

Our stay at Grand Teton was somewhat marred by smokey skies caused by wildfires in Montana and Idaho. Grand Teton is actually in Wyoming. Ken and I did some bicycling there and traveled the scenic routes. It’s interesting how the Snake River runs through these lands, and we had learned how it all ends up in the Columbia River and out to the Pacific at Astoria, OR. The photo below was taken from the very same spot that Ansel Adams took his photo of the Snake River and the Grand Tetons. Of course, I had to deal with the smokey skies!

The loop in the river is now obscured by tree growth. If you get a chance to see his photograph, please do because it’s so interesting to compare after so many decades later.

Here’s an interesting panorama of the range:

A closer view of part of the panorama above

Yellowstone was the motivation for the concept of a national park. America was the first country to adopt it. History was made here. But, more importantly, this entire area is phenomenally special, and we should all be grateful that we have National Parks! Yes, this country is so gosh darn beautiful!