[ Lost in the Landscape ]

on the road–part 2

Late on the night of Day 2 I roll into Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Mon­u­ment. Like Yel­low­stone it show­cases some strik­ing vol­canic fea­ture, in this case recent erup­tions along the local rift zone in the Earth’s crust. Here are a cou­ple shots from Day 3, images of an intense wild­flower bloom and of resid­ual ice in Indian Tun­nel, a lava tube you can explore.

Then it was on to Yel­low­stone. Here are some of the pics from there, in no real order.

Upper Falls of the Yel­low­stone River:

Tourists at Artist’s Point over­look­ing the Lower Falls of the Yel­low­stone River. The artist in ques­tion is Thomas Moran, who used this van­tage point for his famous image of the Grand Canyon of the Yel­low­stone River.

Spring thaw begin­ning on Yel­low­stone Lake:

Clouds and ice, Yel­low­stone Lake:

Sun­set Lake, Black Sand Basin, Yel­low­stone:

A cou­ple shots from Mid­way Geyser Basin, from the brink or Excel­sior Geyser:

The Jeep didn’t care for the cold, wet weather, and took its own vaca­tion by the side of Yel­low­stone Lake.

View­point at Ledge Geyser, Black Sand Basin, Yel­low­stone, with some of the only sun­shine all trip:

The worst of the trip’s bison jams, this one when a herd of about five dozen was mov­ing from their break­fast to lunch graz­ing loca­tions:

Algae in the geyser runoff at Nor­ris Geyser Basin:

What? No pic­tures of Old Faith­ful? Sorry. There’s a cou­ple hun­dred more of these tourist pic­tures but I’ll spare you. Once I start print­ing up some of my more “seri­ous” pho­to­graphic work and have some­thing to show I’ll post a few more images.

June 08 2008 | Categories: landscape • photography • places | Tags: geysers • hot springs • tourists • Valley of the Moon National Monument • viewpoints • Yellowstone National Park | 2 Comments »