Travel

Mammoth Hot Springs at Yellowstone National Park

Besides the steam rolling in the atmosphere, this large stone formation is the first thing one sees when arriving at Mammoth Hot Springs. Many of these formations stood hundreds of feet tall in the river beds and deep canyons.

Past the rock is Artist's Palette, which is a colorful formation of algae growing on the mineral deposits that are melted by the hot water and pushed up to the surface of the Earth. The hot water streams are way beneath the ground and it takes a great deal of heat to melt the hard calcium.

Closer in, one can see the different rivers of color and the crusty texture of the delicate surface. Dead trees add to the interest of this landscape and become the dead amongst the new living.

As a photographer, every shot leads to a different angle and a different crop. There are no finite numbers of compositions in these mounds and pools.

And, occasionally, the wildlife add to the landscape of the hot springs and even run off some of the photographers that might be in their way. As is the case of this young bull elk when he decided to join me on the boardwalk, while I was on my belly and shooting in the opposite direction. My shooting partner had the wits about him to shoot the entire episode and to not warn me before the elk was about two feet away and staring me down. Pretty crazy being two feet away from an elk and to have him keep advancing on you! I obviously didn't have time to shoot the event.

The steam rising above the hot springs and into the deep blue sky, added a sense of mystery to the mounds and pools.

This tiny little pool was gurgling and spouting and I became fascinated at trying to capture the bubble of water coming out of the earth.

I guess that anyone who has been away from Yellowstone for many decades would not know what to expect upon their return. My childhood memories consisted of the black bears walking up to the car window and asking for handouts, and of a landscape my child's eye could not grasp - nothing more that was good.

I didn't know if the country's first national park would be so commercialized that the roadside animals would be sitting around in cages, or if any of it would still be wild. Much to my surprise, this park has been well maintained to suit the wildlife, as well as the visitors.

One hears about Old Faithful but to tell the truth I did not think about geysers and hot springs before my arrival with Jersey Boy, a photographer friend who'd never seen the wilds of the West. But as we entered the park and began to notice shapes of elk and bison dotted on the landscape, there was also these large, orange mounds with steam rising from them. Shooting steam fascinates me, particularly when I combine it with colors of orange and aqua blue.

Rivers of color everywhere and with every shot was another one. Starting out wide and working my way in to capture the abstract formations of something I did not understand. It is difficult to not be fascinated and curious by what one might imagine as a moon type landscape. Small craters of water bubbling and running, steam rising and blowing over, or away from us. The smiles of people that walked the boardwalk for a closer look. Everyone had the look of awe and amazement. Almost like they'd discovered a secret and we were the only ones who got to see it. A complete respect for this new type of nature.

We spent a great deal of time at the hot springs on the first day and are glad that we did because against a grey sky and without the wonderful morning light, they are not so interesting. Not to photograph anyway.

Afterwards we did a loop around the northern half of the park, stopping to see a bland by comparison, Old Faithful, waterfalls, landscape, some grizzly bears and cubs, a black bear, elk, bison and birds. Silent in my mind, I noticed the perfectly shaped cones of the mountains and contemplated the volcanic activity that must be strong in the pocket of that universe. Only the area along Yellowstone Lake, with its tall stand of trees that were older than most because of the many fires, was uninteresting.

For being wildlife photographers, and of course enjoying every encounter with a wild beast, except when they were attacking us, we seemed to be most in awe of the hot springs, smaller geysers and pools. There was no line of black bears at the entrance, waiting for chunks of Wonder Bread. There was much more than one young little mind could've have ever comprehended and retained all those years ago, particularly now because those memories exist only in the form of black and white photographs.

I've only scratched the surface of Yellowstone National Park and plan to return every Spring and Fall that it is possible to do so. The babies in the Spring and the Rut against the backdrop of bright yellow Aspen trees in the Fall. Now that is a dream plan for every nature photographer and one that is played out by many others each year.

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