Yellowstone National Park - Articles - Zimbio

Yellowstone National Park (August 2-7, 2008)

Mon, 14 Oct 2008 07:11:36 GMT

posted by nickdgd

This trip was excellent, not just because of the stunning natural sceneries, but also because the whole trip was so well-planned, with every single detail taken care of by the senior students and their wives. And I must thank them at this point. Yosemite National Park was a well-know collection of beautiful natural sceneries. However, in my opinion, it's not as wonderful as Yellowstone, although it's said that the time I went to Yosemite was not the perfect season. I'm not saying Yosemite was not beautiful. It was, in fact. The blue sky, the green trees, the gray granite cliffs and the clear streams showed a colorful painting. Running squirrels and flying birds animated the painting. Nonetheless, such a painting could be seen at many other places, while a lot of the sceneries and the creatures at Yellowstone were unique as far as I had ever seen. I had surprises everyday at Yellowstone.

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Awesome View of the Famous Grand Prismatic Spring [PIC]

Thu, 7 Nov 2008 22:16:00 GMT

posted by gblass

upload.wikimedia.org — The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park is the largest hot spring in the United States, and the third largest in the world. The vivid colors in the spring are the result of pigmented bacteria. The spring discharges an estimated 560 gallons (2000 litres) of 160°F (71°C) water per minute

The Great Outdoors (Part 2 of 3)

Fri, 12 Jul 2008 21:57:00 GMT

posted by dkriggleman
Yellowstone
Yellowstone was the first national park in our nation's history, and after visiting it, I can definitely see why. It is an amazing place that is incredibly diverse in all it has to offer. Nevertheless, there were several things that surprised me about Yellowstone. The first thing was how incredibly huge the park is and the miles of roads it contains. Each of the two big loops of the park is about 80 miles each, meaning that a lot of time is spent driving in the car if you want to see everything in the park, which you might as well do since you will probably only visit Yellowstone one time in your life. As a result, the first day in Yellowstone, we decided we would try to complete the entire loop with the exception of the Old Faithful Area, which we would do another day. Our first stop of the day was Canyon Village, the location of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. However, we made several stops along the way, seeing various thermal features and occasionally stopping because of animal crossings. When we finally arrived, we hiked up to Artist Point, and it was then when I finally understood while this was one of the must see attractions of Yellowstone. While not as massive as the Grand Canyon in Arizona, it was just as equal in terms of its beauty. In addition, up until now, I never knew why the park was named Yellowstone. However, after seeing the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and reading more about it, it became obvious. The park was named Yellowstone because the thermal vents turned the stone in the canyon walls to yellow, hence the name Yellowstone. For the next few hours, we spend time hiking down into the canyon for close fews of both the Lower Falls, which is the one in these pictures, as well as the Upper Falls, a waterfall that is not as larger as the Lower Falls, but nonetheless still commands great respect and awe. The final hike in this area was to the brink, or top, of the Lower Falls. While the hike was steep, it was definitely worth it. As the water powered over the edge, you could feel the might of the powerful rushing water. Our next major destination was all the way at the north entrance of the park, Mammoth Hot Springs. However, along the way we stopped many times at overlooks to admire the views and to see many waterfalls and other thermal features. It is amazing to think that Yellowstone has over 150 waterfalls that are 100 feet or taller. To me, that number is almost mindblowing. In addition, on our way up to Mammoth Hot Springs, we had to pass Mount Washburn, an area set aside as a bear refuge where hikers were not allowed. If we were going to see a bear on this trip, now was definitely a good opportunity. Before long, we saw many cars stopped ahead parked off the side of the road. One thing that you quickly learn in Yellowstone is that whenever an animal is spotted all traffic suddenly stops and people find the most unique ways to park. Fortunately, we were able to find a safe parking spot and see what all the commotion was about. Sure enough, there in the distance, was a brown bear. After watching him for several minutes and taking some pictures, we set off again, continuing the northward drive until we finally reached Mammoth Hot Springs. While the area clearly had huge terraces that would certainly produce large hot springs when active, most the springs were dried up, one of the only disappointing moments on the trip. Still, we were able to see a few large hot springs that were still active and at the same time mammoth. As we now headed down south again on the opposite side of the loop, we made a few more stops along the way. One of the more interesting spots was where what I call "fencepost rocks" could be seen. Surprisingly, these rock formations are completely natural and are actually the result of volcanic activity in which the cracks in the basalt formations are actually vents created by the steam from a volcano. The next day, we finally went into the famous Old Faithful area. We first went to the visitor center to check out the various times each of the geysers would erupt. After seeing Old Faithful erupt right on time, we headed off for a hike in Biscuit Basin, an area known for its thermal pools. After seeing much more thermal activity than we had seen in the past, as well as some incredibly blue thermal pools, we hiked up to Mystic Falls and then around to the overlook giving us great views of the entire area. After finishing the hike we headed back to hopefully see Grand Geyser erupt. While Old Faithful is the most popular and famous geyser in the park because of its reliability of being able to predict the next eruption within 10 minutes, Grand Geyser is much more, as its name suggests, grand. Grand Geyser is the tallest known predictable geyser in the world, shooting off up to 200 feet. However, the range of the geyser can only normally be predicted within three hours. Fortunately, Grand Geyser was making people wait patiently that day, so we were able to make the hike to the Geyser in time and witness an incredible burst of water. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. A few days later, after spending three days in the backcountry, which I will explain the adventure in more detail tomorrow, we headed back one more time to Old Faithful. After seeing it erupt again, we headed out to see a few more thermal pools and geysers. Along the way, we encountered one of the famous Yellowstone storms. In Yellowstone, it will pour down raining with lightning, thunder, and sometimes even hail, but in 15 minutes the storm will end and the sky will clear up, turn bright blue and you would never have known it was storming. The saying around Yellowstone is that if you don't like the weather, don't worry, it will change in 20 minutes. We certainly found this to be true. As the storm cleared up, we drove to the Fountain Paint Pots, where there was bubbling and gurgling mud that formed interesting formations that looked like paint pots. Finally, before saying goodbye to Yellowstone, we say a few more thermal pools and geysers. We then began the long journey back to our hotel, amazed at all Yellowstone had to offer.

[Yellowstone][D1][Salt Lake City] Street views

Sun, 13 Oct 2008 04:13:43 GMT

posted by nickdgd

(Chinese version of this topic, 中文版)

From John Wayne Airport at Orange County, we took a flight to Salt Lake City on the 1st day. Meanwhile we adjusted our watches for the 1 hour time difference.

I thought Salt Lake City is just a regular city, but I found that it's very different than other US cities. Here roads were broad so that the city looked less crowded. Buildings were mostly short and white, unlike other cities which have tall and gray buildings and look depressing. The guided buses looked comfortable and efficient.

↓↓The guided buses↓↓

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[Yellowstone][D2] Old Faithful Geyser

Sun, 13 Oct 2008 06:45:18 GMT

posted by nickdgd

(Chinese version of this topic, 中文版)

Yellowstone is a geographically active place, with more than 2000 earthquakes every year (much less than California, though). Hot springs with H₂S flow underground and erupt at some places and thus form geysers, which are similar to those in the Great Boiling Valley in Japan. The most famous geyser is the Old Faithful. It erupts every 92 minutes (10 minutes inaccuracy). Each eruption lasts a few minutes and goes up to 20 more meters high. We were so lucky that it started to erupt right after we arrived there.

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