The colorful landscape of Yellowstone National Park is unique and draws visitors from all over the world.
Yellowstone – Blend of Colors
Tag Archives: Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone – Colorful Mud Formations
Best known for its stunning display of vivid color, Yellowstone National Park is an undoubted national treasure. The reds, yellows and browns of the mud in the images below are derived from oxidation states of the iron in the mud.
Yellowstone – Excelsior Geyser Crater
Excelsior Geyser Crater is a 200 x 300 foot crater that constantly discharges more than 4,000 gallons of water per minute into the Firehole River.
In Yellowstone National Park’s recorded history, Excelsior Geyser and Sapphire Pool in Biscuit Basin have exceeded Steamboat in size.
Yellowstone – Boardwalks
Every year, thousands of pairs of feet anxiously scurry across more than 14 miles of Yellowstone National Park’s iconic, wooden boardwalk system, eager to ferry their owners to an up close and personal glimpse of hundreds of natural hydrothermal springs and geysers.
Colors in Yellowstone
Yellowstone National Park is an undoubted national treasure, best known for its stunning display of vivid color. Surprisingly, living organisms are actually what cause the bright colorations at Yellowstone. More specifically, there are several species of bacteria that can only survive in specific temperatures and acid levels.
Here are examples of colorful formations that are not circular ……
Yellowstone – Norris Geyser Basin Formations
Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park is home to the largest active geyser in the world, Steamboat Geyser. Steamboat can reach 380 feet and its steam phase can be heard miles away. Unfortunately, Steamboat is rare, the last major eruption was in 1991.
There are several spots with bubbling hot water …..
Yellowstone Rivers
While yesterday’s post showed images of steam rising from water streams, there are still full flowing normal rivers in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
Yellowstone – Steam Rising
The landscape at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is populated by areas with volcanic activity causing flowing water to boil and create steam.
Heat and volcanic gases from slowly cooling magma rise and warm the dense salty water that occupies fractured rocks above the Yellowstone magma chamber. That brine, in turn, transfers its heat to overlying fresh groundwater which is recharged by rainfall and snowmelt from the surface.
Falls at Yellowstone
The 308-foot Lower Falls at Yellowstone National Park may have formed because the river flows over volcanic rock more resistant to erosion than the downstream rocks, which are hydrothermally altered. The 109-foot Upper Falls flows over similar rocks.
Falls at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
Past and current hydrothermal activity at Yellowstone National Park altered and weakened the rhyolite, making the rocks softer. The Yellowstone River eroded these weakened rocks to deepen and widen the canyon, a process that continues today. The current canyon begins at Lower Falls and ends downstream from Tower Fall. Here is a view of the Lower Falls.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is the most breathtaking sight inside Yellowstone National Park. Twenty miles long, the canyon is up to 4,000-feet wide and 1,200-feet deep in places. It’s located on the eastern side of the park. From several vantage points, you can view Lower Falls plunging steeply into the canyon 308 feet, or the Upper Falls tumbling 109 feet.
Clouds in Yellowstone
With spectacular clouds in a blue sky, the drive through the dramatic Fall landscape in Yellowstone National Park was mesmerizing.
Yellowstone Landscape
Yellowstone National Park is a nearly 3,500-sq.-mile wilderness recreation area atop a volcanic hot spot. Mostly in Wyoming, the park spreads into parts of Montana and Idaho too. Yellowstone features dramatic canyons, alpine rivers, lush forests, hot springs and gushing geysers, including its most famous, Old Faithful. It’s also home to hundreds of animal species, including bears, wolves, bison, elk and antelope.
As we were visiting in Fall, the landscape in Yellowstone was drier but the vistas were still beautiful.
Photos by Ravi 