Summer 2012 Inspiration - Yellowstone National Park
I finally have a second to sit down and recount my trip to Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, including visits to Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and Jackson Hole, which I took earlier this month….
First off, it’s not easy to find the right opportunity to take time off, given my insanely busy schedule. I have been slammed with work, delivery issues, sample photography, getting ready for my first trade show, and the general chaos of life this summer. On top of that, for some reason the month of June decided to put me through the wringer. I blame it on all the eclipses, which made me feel better for like half a second. By the time July came around, I threw my hands up in surrender and checked out - for a week.
It was my first time in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, and all three states held up their end of the bargain. In a word, they are beautiful. I now know why they call Montana “Big Sky Country.” All over that part of the US, the sky never looked so big, or seemed so blue. I felt as if everything were in Technicolor. From the moment we landed in Bozeman, to our arrival in West Yellowstone, all I could do was stare in awe at my surroundings - lush green valleys framed by steep purple mountains, vermillion cliffs, and winding rivers, topped with a deep azure sky, dotted with fluffy cotton-tipped clouds.
Yellowstone was filled with mysterious and awe-inspiring surprises - clouds of steam puffing up from the earth like dancing bodies along the horizon, bubbling hot springs in prismatic colors, boiling water on rocks sizzling like oil on a hot plate as they cascade down ombre-colored staircases formed by years of accumulated mineral deposits. We saw snow-capped mountains, bison herds roaming along the roads, bald eagles, black bears, elk, and even two grizzly bears frolicking in a shady valley. There were steep canyons, huge hot springs in colors of the Caribbean, natural geysers, waterfalls, waterfalls, waterfalls… and more waterfalls.
I can only imagine what the first white explorers must have thought as they heard the natives describe such a place - a land where rivers flow that are hot enough to cook fish in, mountains are made of glass, and geysers spew out streams of water and clouds of steam from openings in the earth.
Pictures don’t do it justice - you must see it in person to really get a grasp of how magnificent it is. In any case, I’m including some of the pictures I took, so you can get somewhat of an idea.