The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

THE YELLOWSTONE LOOP ROAD

Yellowstone National Park beckons: we weren't the only ones beckoned.  But . . . I am not complaining . . . the facilities and organization of the park was so good that it could have easily swallowed up twice as many tourists.  We were told that the number of tourists this summer was "very low" in comparison to previous years.  The recession and high gasoline prices kept many away.  It's a pity, really, because Yellowstone is such a fantastically beautiful place.

 

Park policy is to leave Yellowstone as natural as possible.  As a result, they let wild fires burn out, rather than intervene.  Here we have evidence of a fire from several years ago and the regrowth that has occurred since.

 

We checked into our comfortable lodge room at mid day and set out on one of the park "loop" roads for Old Faithful Geyser.  The park roads have many "turn-outs" that give access to beautiful scenes, like this Alpine lily pond, and . . .

 

. . . . broad vistas of the park forests and lakes.

 

The road into Yellowstone follows the beautiful  Yellowstone River.

 

We stopped many times to marvel at the natural beauty of the Yellowstone River.

 

We stopped many, many times to marvel at the beauty of the Yellowstone River scenery.

 

We reached the vast parking lots of the Old Faithful Lodge about ten minutes too late to see the geyser erupt.  Fortunately, they don't call it Old Faithful for nothing:  the next eruption would be in 73 minutes!

 

The area around Old Faithful Geyser is very beautiful.  There were also shops nearby selling everything in the universe with "Old Faithful" either embossed, embroidered, or printed on it. I bought a t-shirt while we waited.  I also had a hot dog that didn't have Old Faithful printed on it.

 

As the moment of eruption neared, a small crowd appeared.  The seating around the geyser was only half full.

 

Old Faithful erupting right on time.  Too bad the light wasn't any better for photography.

 

The eruption is really spectacular . . . a video clip can be found here.

 

We went back to the lodge for the night after Old Faithful, but not before exploring a bit around Yellowstone Lake.

 

Ah, Wilderness!

 

Here and there around Yellowstone Lake are areas of active geology, such as colorful mineral hot springs, geysers, and bubbling mud and slimy ooze, my favorite things.

 

Effervescent green mineral springs and slimy pink gunky hot springs side-by-side.

 

This little geyser was spitting an occasional thick, hot white paste globule.  Very creepy, really.

 

Other than volcanoes and earthquakes, we do not normally think of the earth itself as active . . .

 

There were lots of elderly couples riding very large motorcycles (sometimes puling a trailer full of camping gear) on the road and in the lodges.  By elderly, I mean 85 years old, like this "young couple" from Alabama.  Good on them!  I love seeing old folks out in the  world enjoying life.

 

There was a touring service employing antique busses available for tourists.  Very cool.

 

We followed the Loop Road counterclockwise along the shore of Yellowstone Lake.

 

We pulled off the Loop Road often for short walks in the beautiful nature.

 

Yellowstone River.

 

Yellowstone River rocks covered with moss and lichens.

 

We saw some trees showing signs of Elk rubbing the velvet off their young antlers.

 

The giant Elk was grazing not ten feet from the roadside . . . with 30 cars and campers and 50 people all clicking away with their cameras!  The Elk remained nonchalant.

 

The weather remained threatening all day.  The geological activity of Yellowstone is a reminder that we were sitting on top of an ancient Super Volcano.

 

The views of the bubbling mud were endless.

 

A bubbling mud caldera.  Do not swim in these.

 

A hot, bubbling mineral lake.  Beautiful.

 

Although it was a cloudy day, the mountain glades were beautiful in their wild flowers.

 

A field of Yellowstone wild flowers.

 

We at last came to the end of Yellowstone Lake.

 

The lake emptied back into the Yellowstone River . . . and then into the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone."

 

THE GRAND CANYON OF YELLOWSTONE

Upper Falls, Yellowstone River.

 

The Yellowstone River goes over a series of falls.

 

Middle Falls, Yellowstone River.

 

Near the Lower Falls.

 

The Lower Falls: WOW!

 

The "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" begins at the Lower Falls.

 

The Yellowstone River carved a deep canyon through, what else, yellow stone.

 

The light was not good for this kind of photography . . . but I tried to be patient.

 

If you look at the top of the foreground pinnacle you will see an osprey's nest  with chicks.  Of course I only had my 24-105mm lens with me . . . .

 

We eventually had to leave the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone because this big rain (above) moved in . . . and was beautiful.

 

We left the high river and canyon region and arrived at open meadows with bison serenely grazing.

 

We were able to get surprisingly close to the bison.

 

I guess if you are exposed to over a million tourists, you get used to it.  These are magnificent animals.

 

This big fellow was walking beside the road without a care in the  world.  He stopped for this posed photo-op.

 

Wild flowers were in abundance as it was still Spring in July at this altitude of over 8000 feet.

 

On our second day we decided to drive the entire Loop Road . . . to see the bubbling mineral springs and cascades.

 

There is no shortage of grand views in Yellowstone:  Here a recent burn left a sad and desolate landscape.

 

All day long we chased, and were chased by, dark mountain storms.

 

The Loop Road takes you up and outside of the main caldera and into some beautiful rolling high country.

 

YELLOWSTONE HOT MINERAL SPRINGS

The highlight of the second day in Yellowstone, if not the entire vacation, was the discovery of the hot mineral springs.  This is Canary Springs.

 

The mineral hot springs were a flow of scalding hot water, mineral formations, and an abundance of waterborne life in the form of thermophilic microbes.

 

The combination of time, flowing hot mineral water, and simple thermophilic life forms created the most marvelous patterns.

 

OK, name this planet.  If you guessed Earth, you'd be right, although the small round mineral balls are reminiscent of the "blueberries" found on Mars by the rovers.

 

I could not get enough of these wild abstract algae creations in mineral substance.

 

A colorful hot algeal mineralscape.

 

Mineralscape detail.  Amazing beauty and complexity.  These were very difficult to photograph on this cloudy day: most of what you see in this photo was moving around, wafting back and forth in the current of hot mineral spring water.

 

A scene of life that has adapted to a hostile environment.  If this livng stuff can live on Earth, then it can live ANYWHERE!

 

Oh!  The colors!

 

Everything in this photo is a life form . . . swaying in the current of a hot spring!

 

More "Martian" blueberries.

 

Colorful layers of minerals and algae forms.

 

Steaming hot spring.

 

Hot spring patterns.

 

At the mineral springs.

 

In some of the hot pools it would be the minerals that had crystallized into patterns.

 

The variation of color and pattern in the hot mineral springs was endless.

 

A cropped photo of a hot algae pool. Extraterrestrial, no?

 

The hot vulcanism of our planet must be very close to the surface here.

 

As we drove the Loop Road the natural wonders just kept on coming!

 

After seeing these formations I understood more of how the Mars Rovers went about their business: some mineral formations only occur in the presence of water.

 

These mineral formations are not ancient, as the protruding trees attest.  Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA.

 

Again: Name the planet!

 

Another roadside Point of Interest, and another amazing mineral formation.

 

This hot spring was very active: loudly bubbling and steaming.

 

Hot, bright white liquid poured down the hillside.

 

Fabulous Nature!

 

Active geology, no?

 

Beautiful . . . . and there was more to come . . . much more.  I LOVE Yellowstone.

 

A cascade of color, minerals, algae, bacteria, and hot water.

 

Orange Spring Mound near Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone.  Bacteria and algae create the streaks of color.

 

Orange Spring Mound, Yellowstone, late afternoon, July 17, 2012.

 

We headed back out onto the Yellowstone Loop Road back to our cabin, the light was becoming as magical as the landscape.

 

Afternoon light in the Wyoming High Country.

 

A clearing in between the afternoon showers left the earth wet and dark.

 

A Yellowstone afternoon; Elk grazing in the distance.

 

High country afternoon sky, meadow, trees, and hill.

 

While driving around in that beautiful afternoon magic golden hour light I spotted a roadside forest lake and pulled over.

 

The timing couldn't have been better:  fantastic light and shadow . . . and  . . .

 

. . . reflection!

 

Incredible reflection.  What a special afternoon it was.

 

Further on down the road: deer grazing.

 

A tranquil and serene sight.

 

Who in the Hell drives a SmartCar from Florida to Yellowstone?  The Buffalo was larger than the car . . .

 

The Bison is a magnifiscent animal.

 

In mid-July, the sun sets very late at these northern latitudes, unlike Bangkok, my home town.

 

There was a colorful sunset brewing . . .

 

. . . and even though the sun was setting, we continued to explore the various geothermal sights.  You can see steam rising everywhere.

 

The National Park Service does a very good job of making it easy for visitors to make the most of their Yellowstone holiday.  This is the Subaru we rented.  A very good car for this kind of trip, although I would have liked to have had about 500 more horsepower.  Oh well.

 

There weree still beautiful photographs to take in the last of the light:  this stream meandering through the green marsh grass and purple sage, for example.

 

A geyser erupting at night is spectacular, not so much for the visuals, but the auditory experience: the ground rumbles, then the hot seam gurgles and hisses loudly as it is ejected from the hot depths of the Earth.

 

We called it a day to remember and headed back to the lodge for a meal of farm-raised trout.  Yummy.

LEAVING YELLOWSTONE: MORE ROADSIDE GEOLOGICAL ATTRACTIONS

We woke early on our last day and drove out of Yellowstone . . . but not without stopping a number of times to take in more amazing geological phenomena.

 

The Yellowstone Park Serice provided very informative and educational signage at every stop.

 

Black Sands Basin was especially beautiful  with the turquoise geyser pools.

 

Although not as high as Old Faithful, this geyser at Black Sands Basin was more dramatic because it was continuously erupting.

 

I do not want to leave the impression through my photographs that we were alone in the park.  There were other tourists wherever we went, but never in large numbers . . . and they were always well behaved, lulled, as it were, into as stupor of total wonder!

 

The weather was perfect in the clear, cold morning: no pesky thunder clouds.

 

Just look at how this algae and bacteria have organized themselves into organic shapes of many kinds (pods!!!).  Looking at these I can understand evolution fully:  give a life form a few billion years and it will morph, evolve into some pretty interesting shapes . . . like you and me.

 

An astonishing color to find in nature! . . . and those cloud reflections!

 

The Yellowstone Park Service provided safe elevated boardwalks to access these amazing hot mineral pools to minimize the impact of so many tourists.  Thanks.

 

I am running out of superlatives that I haven't used a hundred times already.  How about 'wonderous'!!

 

These mineral flows are very recent . . . the colors were otherworldly.

 

Unspoiled natural beauty wherever you looked.  I will always remember this day at Yellowstone.  The sky was so dark blue, and the pools were so vividly turquoise.  Unfathomable beauty.

 

But . . . "we ain't seen nuttin' yet" as the old saying goes . . .

 

As we ascended the steps and boardwalks of Giant Pool, we suspected we were in for a treat.

 

We were not disappointed: an array of color the likes of which I had never seen in nature.  Simply fantastic.  And that sky . . . . .

 

The valley was a continuous plane of geological wonder all the way up to the mountains . . . .

 

. . . and looking in both directions.  On the boardwalk we were surrounded by 360 degrees of flowing hot water covered mineral formations in a wide array of hues and colors.

 

The walk up to the main pool was out of this world: orange algae streaks and water so blue it's steam was also blue.  Simply incredible!

 

Orange, yellow, blue, green . . . and bubbling!

 

I have never seen anything quite so beautiful in my entire life, and I am not likely to see something this beautiful again.

 

The bluest blue I have ever seen.

 

With the bright blue pool behind me the view was also fantastic.

 

The orange algae flow continued under the boardwalk.

 

I did not want to leave Yellowstone . . . and this spot in particular.

 

I would love to come back here in the winter and see this place on a brightcold day with snow all around . . . .

 

This hot deep pool was nearby . . . .

 

. . . it was bubbling viciously from the center.

 

It was a windy day and as a result there were many hats blown into the turquoise realm.  These are tropical beach colors that come as a surprise in the mountains.

 

We had to say good-bye to Yellowstone and hit the road to Butte, Montana for the night.  We were on a road trip, after all, and had to make some miles.