Yellowstone National Park is a truly amazing and one of a kind natural wonder. I’ve only passed through it briefly on a couple of occasions, when the primary objective was Glacier National Park in Montana. Yellowstone and Grand Teton were in the road travel path, so passing through those, it made perfect sense to utilize a stop over at one or both of those parks on the way to Glacier and back.
Spending only a day or two in this very large park in no way allows one to see all that it has to offer; but it is possible to see most of the commonly visited sites. In addition to the really big features and geysers, there are small features that are interesting and hardly ever mentioned and I expect not observed closely by most visitors.
This post is about one of those minor features, which can be observed from the safety of board walks. There are areas where the hot water and steam escaping from underground creates mud puddles that are dynamically pulsing, but in a much smaller way than the eruptions of the major geysers.
It is fun to watch these tiny eruptions of mud spewing just a few inches into the air. The expelled mud takes on random, fleeting, geometric shapes. These shapes can be captured in photographs, if one has patience to spend a few minutes observing and learning how to time shots. I think the best approach is to watch and anticipate the eruptions and shoot in burst (continuous) mode with a fast shutter speed, capturing a quick series of images during the eruption. Thumbing through the images one may find really interesting and intriguing shapes.
Here are a couple of the best ones I managed to capture in the few minutes I had to observe and shoot.
These small features are so fleeting that one usually does not have time to mentally process the shapes as they appear and evolve so quickly, but photographs freeze the shapes, allowing for a greater appreciation of natures temporary artwork.
So, if you get a chance to visit Yellowstone, enjoy the big geysers and colorful pools, but don’t forget to observe the smaller events.
Ken
I’ve never been to Yellowstone but I would imagine there are lots of things to observe and photograph depending on one’s interests.
Yellowstone is an awesome place, Shutterpug. I’ve only passed through and spent a few hours there and there were areas that I did not get to see, but I intend to get back. I’ve heard the early fall is the best time to visit to avoid the large crowds, so maybe one of these falls, I will finally make it back there. I saw a TV series on Yellowstone a few years ago, on PBS, I think. There was much information about the park in that series, including winter scenes, when it is impossible to get anywhere in the park without a snowmobile or such. In fact I did go into the visitor center at the entrance near Jackson, WY during one spring trip, while trying, unsuccessfully, to flee a spring storm. That area gets much snow, so the park roads are closed during the winter season; but it was possible to barely drive into it to a visitor center. I think you can view virtual tours online now at NPS.com. Also check out the web cams. Here is a link to Yellowstone webcams: yellowstone.net/webcams/multi-cams/