I'm starting to lose track of how many times I've been to Yellowstone National Park but I really can't get enough of it. I love Yellowstone. Being home in Washington for the Fall I really missed the fact that I couldn't go to Yellowstone. Every year in the Fall when I would get dropped off at BYU-Idaho my family and I would take a trip up to Yellowstone and then I would usually try and organize another trip with my friends before the park would close in November.
This amazing and exhausting trip to Yellowstone happen in June 16, 2011. I think I need to say that because I'm posting this in March 2012 ... Moving on. We also had a family from from the university follow us on this field trip. They were invited by Ed Williams.
This trip to Yellowstone we visited Obsidian Cliff an obsidian mine, Firehole Falls, The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Artist Paint Pots, an unnamed stop off the road, and Old Faithful.
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| Look at that thick winter coat shedding! Right in the middle of the road too! |
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| Baby bison! I've always wanted to see them! This is the first time I got to see the young calves! And it was a really short time because we were here for Geology and not adorable bison calves. |
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| Look! It's eatting! |
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| Mmmm... grass! |
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| Cute! |
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| The beginning of our hike! |
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| Sulfur crystals! They grow! |
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| More sulfur crystals! Boy! They smell delicious! |
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| Up the barren hill into hordes of baby trees sprung up from the Yellowstone fire of yore! |
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| Where'd everyone else go? This is how it was the entire time. |
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| Trying to ninja our way through these pokey trees. |
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| Where Native Americans were carving out arrowheads from the obsidian. |
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| Obsidian! |
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| It's like I'm an explorer going into an unexplored Yellowstone! |
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| The source of the Obsidian! |
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| Obsidian all over the ground. |
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| Me and the source, we get along. |
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| Rainbow obsidian! |
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| The group checking out the view and the obsidian. |
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| :) |
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| Beautiful. |
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| Lithophysal eroded out of the obsidian. Lithophysals are empty spaces in the volcanic rock left by expanding gas and filled some type of mineral/minerals. |
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| A super pretty piece of obsidian we found. |
This is when we got out of all the little trees. See how they are about five feet in front me but they just pop out of the trees? (not like daises.)
This is the descent from the trees. The ground is covered with talus which meant we slid down the hill in an adventurous fashion.
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| Brother Ben lecturing after we made it out the trees and before the descent. |
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| A world at the Canyon Village Visitor Center. |
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| That little cube, off to the left, is the amount of ash expelled from Mt. St. Helens, the other three cubes are the ash expelled from the Yellowstone Hotspot at three different times. |
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| Track of the Yellowstone Hotspot. |
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| A fake bison and it's calf! Cute! |
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| Yellowstone... |
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| This is where we went! |
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| View of obsidian cliff from a road somewhere. |
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| Fake books in the Visitor Center. |
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| The falls. |
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| Grand Canyon in Yellowstone |
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| It was windy. |
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| A glacial boulder on the side of the road. I am not as tall as this boulder. |
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| Firehole Falls |
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| ? |
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| Flowers in the park! |
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| A stop next to the River. |
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| A mud pot with one huge bubble! It was right next to the path and I could have fallen in. Ouch! |
Here are two videos because I didn't get a good shot.
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| This pool is dubbed "Bath tub." It is in fact, in the shape of a bath tub. |
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| Can you find the explosion crater? I can. |
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| Hot spring. |
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| Artist paint pots! One of my favorites! They were really wet. |
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| Even though is was cold outside some flowers were growing next to a vent in the ground. |
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| Too cold! We couldn't really see any of the hot springs because it was too cold! |
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| People waiting for Old Faithful to go! |
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| Old Faithful! This was one of the shortest eruptions I've seen. |
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| It started snowing while we were at Old Faithful. The best part was some kids from Florida started jumping and dancing in the snow yelling things like: "I've never seen snow fall before!" and "I'll probably never see snow again!" |
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| Everyone is super tired. |
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| Almost home! |
