My first trip to Yellowstone ended with a trip to the hospital and a broken shoulder due to an unfortunate meeting of my snowmobile and a lodgepole pine. This time around I stuck to hiking and had a much less eventful trip. We did have a bison take a stroll through the campground, but it stuck to the lower loops and left us alone.
Yellowstone has been ravaged by wild fires, and contains large areas of hostile and caustic geothermal features, but if you look, you'll see new growth and life thriving in the unlikeliest of places. We learned all about thermophiles (organisms that thrive in heat), extremophiles (organisms that thrive under high pressure and temperature), and acidophile (organisms that thrive in acidic environments). Lodgepole pines fill in the burn scars and provide new layers of soil to nurture other plants. Bison, bears, wolfs, marmots, beavers, and other wildlife seem unfazed by the inhospitable environment and flourish.
You are constantly reminded that the ground underneath the park is still very active and what you see could change dramatically at any time. An earthquake in 1959 significantly shifted many of the thermal features in both location and activity. It is highly likely that a similar event will happen again in our lifetime. I was continually amazed (and a little frightened) at the beauty and power of the geothermal activity that shapes Yellowstone.
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| Upper and Lower Geyser Basin including Old Faithful |
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| Artist Paint Pots |
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| Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Falls and Gibbon Falls |
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| Mammoth Hot Springs |
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| Examples from Norris Geyser Basin, West Thumb, and Grand Prismatic Spring |
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