Yellowstone National Park - Part 1

We went to Yellowstone National Park for the first time. The park is so big that it surely will take more than one trip to check it all out. It took us about 15 minutes just to get through the entrance fee station into the park. It should have given us a clue of what was to come. I have heard that people stop their cars when there is wildlife on the road, but they stop their cars in the middle of the road when there is a bison on the side of the road. It was rather interesting and slightly annoying to us. We decided to take the northern route towards Mammoth Hot Springs and swing by Tower Falls on the way back home.

There had been a big fire a few years ago and the landscape looked very much barren with some new growth.

Of course we were eager to see some water bubbling out of the ground and stopped at the first chance to see it.

I am sure we are going to see bigger and more impressive ones along the way. But first, we found a beautiful waterfall.

Next we discovered our first steam vent.


And then we finally arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs. It was not what I expected, but now I know what the difference is between a hot spring and a geyser. The hot spring is basically a steaming pool of water that does not bubble up very often, if at all.

The mineral deposits sure create some beautiful terracing and shapes.


After a good lunch we went on to Tower Falls.