 This
bison carcass was sitting in front of the dorms at Lake in the Spring of
'97 when I got there. Yellowstone is littered with thousands of dead,
frozen animals in the spring. That's a good thing for hungry carnivores.
Especially ones like the bears who have been sleeping most of the winter
and wake up hungry. Even the little rodents benefit - they will gnaw
on the bones to get minerals. Poor buffy, he looks so sad. |
 Near
the carcass was a little tree pulling itself out of the snow. Some
creatures make it through the long winter, some don't. Sometimes
on slopes the trees will have a curve at the base where the snow sliding
down the hill bends the young trees over in the winter. Also, because
the snow acts as a blanket, sometimes trees have very long and healthy
looking branches at the base where they are buried during the winter. |
 A
creek and snow in early May. I don't know exactly which creek, but it is
one of the ones that crosses the road between Norris and Canyon. |
 The
breakup of the ice on Yellowstone Lake. The lake is frozen over when the
hotel opens in early May. It stays that way for several more weeks. The
breakup is fairly quick once it gets going. The ice goes from a more or
less solid sheet to none at all in just a few days. People take bets on
what day it will happen. |
 A
view looking south from Fishing Bridge, early spring '97. This is the place
where the Yellowstone River leaves Yellowstone Lake. The mountains in the
background are the Red Mountains. |
 The
lake shore later in the summer. I used to walk the shore between Lake and
Fishing Bridge a lot. I waited until the snow and ice had melted
though. Its is a pleasant walk, and even though you are never far
from the road, and never more than a mile or two from the busy Lake and
Fishing Bridge areas, I don't think I ever encountered another human on
my lake shore hikes. |
 Here
we have Grotto Geyser. Spring is waning, there are only small patches of
snow on the ground. This is one of my relatively few decent geyser
pictures, at least when you consider those taken while I worked there.
(see the geyser rant). Since then I have taken
vacations where I have captured more geyser images. Grotto has splashing
eruptions that last for hours. The start of the eruption is the most interesting
part. Not only are the splashes from Grotto higher at the start, but at
least one of the neighboring geysers will precede Grotto with it's own
eruption. I have other pictures of Grotto here
and here, and the spectacular start
of grotto is here.
Why so many I don't know. Maybe because it is erupting about half the time. |
 This
is Beach Spring, Upper Geyser Basin. Warning - this is not a springtime
picture. That is Ok though, Beach does it's thing pretty consistently
in all seasons. I like this particular hot spring because the water
level rises and falls. When the water rises it sizzles. Usually Beach does
not overflow, except maybe just a little onto the "beach" surrounding the
pool. The water is crystal clear and very hot, boiling hot I imagine. |
 Sunset
on Geyser Hill, Upper Geyser Basin. The basins are especially otherworldly
at sunset and at night. They are less crowded too, even at the height of
the summer tourist season. I can tell this is a summer picture because
the lack of steam clouds indicates warmth. |
 My
Yellowstone wolf, Woolfie. I had to have some kind of wolf picture, and
in my pictures of real wolves the wolves are too far away. You can read
about how I got to feed the wolves if you
like. |