Yellowstone - a truly magnificent place!

From Awesome David

Tuesday, 19th September
Today we entered Yellowstone National Park (the first and best national park in the world), in a flurry of snow and ice. It was truly magical!

Looking down the Gibbon river valley

Cold Grant children at Gibbon Falls 

The beautiful Gibbon Falls in the snow

The Grant family in an unexpected winter wonderland!

Yellowstone is a phenomenal place - the caldera of a massive super-volcano that essentially created the mid-west of the United States. All of the major rivers in the US issue from it, and its volcanic lava essentially created the rich soils on the plains all across America.
The National Park, which was established in 1872, is its own ecosystem and governor of its own weather system. This would be why we have been caught in snow in the middle of September!

The geothermal field at Yellowstone produces the world's largest (the Steamboat) and most famous (Old Faithful) geysers and a dazzling array of colours generated by the minerals deposited around the steam vents and the thermophilic ("heat-loving") organisms that survive in this mineral rich environment. Unsurprisingly, the name "Yellowstone" is derived from the sulfur that is seen everywhere.

Eliza and Logan at the entrance to the "Artists Paintpots"

The Artists Paintpots from above 

Yellowstone (looking north from the Artists Paintpots)

Red iron oxide rich mineral deposits

A stunning array of colours in this natural wonder!

Jonty and a copper-rich "paintpot" (trying to avoid Logan's snowballs!)

The Blood Geyser

Coming from NZ, we have the same geothermal activity around the site of our own super-volcano, Lake Taupo. The clear difference is the scale - Yellowstone is almost 4 times bigger than Rotorua's field (and we haven't even started our journey towards Yellowstone lake!). It is just absolutely awe-inspiring.

The Norris geothermal field

Bright-green thermophilic algae in the run-off of the Whirligig Geyser

The Grant family freezing on the trail of the Whirligig Geyser field

A beautiful, deep steaming pool - an eye into the centre of the Earth!

The Whirligig Geyser field

We weren't as prepared for the cold weather as we should have been, so freezing children meant that we needed to return to our lodge a little earlier than expected; however, we just had to stop and watch the herd of grazing elk on the wintry plain. We also saw a lone bison earlier in the day.

This photo does not do the elk grazing scene justice