 The
Teton Range, or at least a part of it. It is in that national park
just south of Yellowstone, the one that has the spectacular mountains,
pretty lakes, animals, much nicer hotels, and a really good museum of the
American Indian at Colter Bay. Unfortunately it has no geysers.
Also, it has many gift shops, that is where we spent a big part of the
day. The french trappers thought these mountains looked like women's
breasts, that's how they got their name They must have been in the
mountains a long while. |
 Some
pronghorn antelope at Grand Teton. These animals are very fast and
very tasty too. |
 On
the way back to the cabin we stopped at the West Thumb Geyser Basin.
We were greeted with this rather exciting sign. Yes, nature can be
dangerous, as some old guy pointed out to a group of Japanese tourists
who were busy taking their pictures beside some increasingly irritated
looking elk nearby. West Thumb sometimes has distinct surges of activity
in different parts of the basin. Other basins do too, but they are
often dramatic at West Thumb. We unfortunately saw no steam and rock
explosions while there. We didn't even see any of the three or so
reliable geysers in the basin erupt. Still, the pools and mud pots
were pretty. The whole basin is pretty the way it sits right on the
edge of the lake. |
 Here
are some of the aforementioned elk grazing dangerously close to the hot
springs. To see what can happen when a large animal falls into a
hot spring go here,
and use the back button on your web browser (as opposed to the link that
says back at the bottom of the page) to get back here. |
 This
is Twin Geyser not erupting. It is the largest geyser at West Thumb,
over 100 feet high. It is a double geyser, with two separate columns
of water that start at different times, and intersect far above ground
Unfortunately, it is usually dormant. |
 Some
algae were growing in a recently dry runoff channel. |
 This
is the famous Fishing Cone. Supposedly, before it was made illegal,
fishermen could catch a fish in the lake and cook it in Fishing Cone without
taking the fish off the hook. On rare occasions it has acted as a
geyser. I have a winter picture of it here.
Remember to use the browser back button to get back here, that is if you
want to get back here. |
 This
is the well named Lakeshore Geyser. It is also usually dormant, but
at least it usually has a good excuse. The vent is usually covered
by cold lake water, preventing it's eruption. It can reach 25 feet
high on those rare occasions when it does erupt. It looked high and
dry here, but no eruption. |
 Another
exciting warning sign. Now, if the activity had just recently increased
before we got there we wouldn't know it was increased activity, would we.
I mean we don't know what the activity was like an hour ago or a day ago. |
 This
is Collapsing Pool, looking kind of calm. |