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The first morning at campground there was an elk on in the lake

We found this lily pad at the continental divide

Yea.. we were camping at about 7500 feet.... thin air

Kepler Cascades

Old Faithful steaming away

Hot springs near old faithful. (no... that isn't a ledge hanging over empty space... it is floating over water)

even though the water is hot... it isn't boiling.. that is sulfur gas being released.

down below old faithful... run off water creates habitat for bright colored bacteria

Old Faithful blows

about 150 feet high on average....

Mud Pot at West Thumb geyser basin... again not boiling.. just sulfur gas

West thumb geyser basin

yes... that is bubbling mud at the West thumb geyser basin

Hiking up to Mystic Falls

Mystic Falls

Climbing down to the stream at Mystic Falls

Cliffs at Fire River Canyon

I'm Cool (Fire River)

Fire River Falls

Biscuit Geyser Basin (note the exploding geyser in background)

more bubbling water at Biscuit Geyser Basin

Biscuit Geyser Basin

Another Morning visitor... no not a pet dog.. a coyote

a bison.. not a buffalo

No.. the cut throat is not flying... the water was that clear

No fishing at this location was allowed

We found more bison

you are not allowed closer than 100 yards..... unless the bison insist

same bison... zoomed all the way out... note in right hand side, caught edge of mirror of truck we were riding in

That is how close we were

note lack of tree bark... bison rub trees trying to remove fur to keep cool

Mud pot... about 5 feet from parking lot... sound effect... imagine *Glurp* about every 5 seconds

hiking up trail to Mud Volcano... this Bison wanted to join the tour

there were more Bison on top of hill waiting for us

again.. water is not boiling... sulfur gas is being released.... constantly

hard to smile with all the sulfur gas and bison smells. (ok.. so we couldn't smell the bison, but we could smell the sulfur)

Mud Volcano

Mud Volcano description

Dragons Breath (or something like that) Imagine a deep rumbling gurgling sound coming out of cave.

Midway geyser basin

note the different color steam

Steam coming off reflected the color of the surface under it.. blue, yellow, orange...

trees in background were all killed in 1988 fire which burned 2/3 of the park

more water falls

no sulfur smells here..

note.. more dead trees... about 30 miles from midway geyser basin, but same fire

Mammoth Hot Springs... it was hot, but not a lot of spring

all the light colored deposits reflected the heat quite well

some spring still had water

note the crack in the cliff wall.. it looks like it is going to collapse any time

finally found some spring water

looking back at Mammoth camp site below the springs

it may look toxic, but isn't.. Bacteria feeding off of spring outflow

note... the springs just created themselves around the trees

not snow... it was about 90 degrees outside.. mineral deposits.

it just looks so alien

yea... it killed the trees

big building in the middle.. that is where you can get 4 burgers for $23.00. We only ordered 3 burgers, but Ulga from the Ukraine couldn't understand us so we ended up with 4 burgers.

Falls returning from Mammoth hot springs.

there were 5 forest fires this night.. the largest being 330 acres

the next day... we could see no smoke from any fires.... but it was still burning according to the rangers.

Darn if the cars don't stop and stare at any elk... even the Oregon cars

some people just had to see how close they could get to the wild life (Elk)

this was actually a buck deer...(much more skittish than the elk)

this Elk did finally decide it was to crowded... and made an exit to the woods

West Thumb Geyser basin... like looking into another world.

this elk really liked posing for pictures....

We went south looking for moose... but this was all we found

The Grand Teton Mountains

I have few more pictures... and all pictures in higher resolution than these. If you are interested in a CD with copies, please let me know.