Category: **Our Awesome National Parks

SNAP*Shot: Lower Falls in Winter

Posted on by Joy

Yellowstone in the white of winter is a stunning wonderland. The Lower Falls is magical in winter with baby-blue ice growing thicker and wider in this frigid season where temps reach -30 degrees and colder.

An ice cone forms at the base of the falls from splash, mist, and snowfall. It can grow 2/3 the height of the falls itself. The water, thick with cold, crashes down 308 feet sending mist into the air taller than the falls. From Lookout Point, the roar of falling water is muffled by the snow and ice buildup, but once at the bottom, the Yellowstone River flows downhill and north into Paradise Valley and ultimately to the Missouri River.

The beauty of this place just begs for us to linger, but as the wind picks up, we don’t have enough layers to keep the freezing chill at bay. Time to return to the warmth of the snowcoach and smile at the beauty of this special place wrapped in winter white.

Lower Falls in Winter

White Porcelain at Norris Geyser Basin

Posted on by Joy

Yellowstone in winter is truly a wonderland. Quiet solitude, the result of few park visitors and the muffling effect of deep snow. Vast sparkling snow landscapes can feel disorienting and measuring snow depth in feet both define winter here. Last autumn we visited Porcelain Basin, one of two basins at Norris Geyser Basin. Today we will marvel at the basin in its winter glory–White Porcelain this time of year! Welcome to Yellowstone’s most acidic and hottest hydrothermal area and one of the most active earthquake areas in Yellowstone.

Porcelain Basin

Bundle up and let’s go

SNAP*Shot: Dusky Grouse

Posted on by Joy

dusky grouse male

Dusky Grouse are so interesting and this year I had an up-close and personal encounter (see below). Here is a male in full mating display in June, too busy courting to bother with us. He struts and hops with tail raised and fanned, neck feathers spread revealing his bright neck-skin patch, loud wing thumping, and making a deep wump-wump-wump, a sound that can be heard great distances by springtime hikers. These birds, about the size of a chicken and weighing up to three pounds, would rather walk than fly. Best known by locals for scaring the daylights out of you. You’ll be walking a trail, they wait until you are about two feet away, and fly up in a rapid, flurried take off almost hitting you. Yikes, my heart!

More grousing

Ride~About: Winter Wonderland

Posted on by Joy

Walks and hikes are great, but sometimes the road trip getting there is spectacular as well. Even in the car we can slow down and look around enjoying the landscapes, critters in the meadows, and features unique to the drive. We had six inches of snow overnight at Lamar Buffalo Ranch and the clouds are closing in as flurries begin to fall. A gorgeous winter wonderland, just in time for Christmas!

Lamar-

Continue our ride