young Yellowstone elk
My previous post was all about our trip to Livingston, Montana for my brother’s wedding. We happened to be a short drive from Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is the kind of place you hear people talking about your whole life. Kevin has been there before and convinced me it was worth all the fuss. We actually got pretty caught up in the North side of the park and never even made down to famous Old Faithful. That’s okay; there was hardly any traffic and so much to see where we were.
My mother let me borrow her telephoto camera lens, and I had much fun experimenting and getting close ups of places I could barely see. Lugging two cameras around Yellowstone was so worth it. The photo opportunities are amazing.
Bear with me. There’s a lot of pictures here, but I promise they’re easy on the eyes.
First, we have the buffalo:
buffalo through the trees
buffalo herd
buffalo and calf crossing the road
buffalo by the water
buffalo rolling in the dirt
buffalo just hanging out
Just a bit further down the road came many, many geysers!
Norris Geyser Trail
love the aqua blue
closeup!
even closer
a lot of steam around here!
does that building look safe?
heart geyser!
trying out the close up shot with my mom’s camera
another geyser closeup
don’t these look like they would make great hot springs? if they don’t boil you, that is.
Am I the only one who looks at this and thinks: facial?
It was amazing to me to watch the cycles of birth and destruction ever-prevalent around Yellowstone. The boiling hot landscape could be particularly harsh on the trees, and the evidence of their struggle lent a particularly eery look to Yellowstone’s landscape.
whitened trees
cracks in the ground
dead and new life
More signs of new life around Yellowstone:
We haven’t even gotten to the elk yet:
elk heads popping out of grass
more practice with telephoto lens
young elk
Might I also introduce you to our lunch spot?
where we pulled off for lunch
we sat on one of those big rocks by the river
And our friend the coyote?
coyote
And Mammoth Hot Springs on our way out!
rocks near mammoth hot springs
What a lovely day.
