Category: **Our Awesome National Parks

SNAP*Shot: Gibbon River

Posted on by Joy

The Gibbon River begins its life in Grebe Lake found in the center of Yellowstone National Park. About 20 miles from it’s origin we find Gibbon Falls. This river sneaks in on the eastern side of the Continental Divide making it one of the few rivers in the park flowing from north to south. Crashing down 84 feet right along the Loop Road, we can take a short walk to see the wilderness framing the falls. Flowing another 4.7 miles south, the river joins the Firehole River forming the Madison, a major tributary of the Missouri River. The gift of water flowing from the mountain tops of Montana and Wyoming.

Gibbon Falls

Between Dry and Wet–Northern Edge of Yellowstone

Posted on by Joy

walk view-0398

Six miles north of the Roosevelt Arch in Gardiner, Montana, runs Reese Creek which marks the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park. This area is barely explored, and most people who come to Yellowstone don’t realize this dirt road, called Old Yellowstone Trail, is part of Park. Let’s walk toward Electric Peak among the sagebrush and along the creek. April is barely springtime in Yellowstone, but let’s see what we can see in the spaces between arid and water.

Continue walking . . .

SNAP*Shot: Time Out On The Way with Bighorn Sheep

Posted on by Joy

You know, sometimes an amazing thing happens along the road before you ever make it to the trailhead. Although I’m excited and expectant for the great walk I’ve planned for this first week of December, slowing down and looking around applies to the car trip too. The planned walk has to wait, this is too good to miss! See them?

bighorn hillside-0331

Continue exploring . . .

Early, Steamy, Surreal–Morning Twilight in Yellowstone

Posted on by Joy

That travel alarm is really annoying with its inescapable bbbzzzzzzzz. Remind me again why it is blaring at 4:30am? Right, I’m staying at the Old Faithful Inn in order to greet dawn’s twilight near the Firehole Lake thermals. Watching as the sun rises issuing a challenge to the  23° temperature. Remember your hat and gloves.

It is the beginning of October with a 6:15am twilight, that first hint of promising warm sunshine. Happily it is October rather than June when twilight is 4:55am. A little perspective gets me moving. We want to be ready, camera in hand, to see the morning mist, the thermal steam, and their interaction as the sky grows light and the sun rises.

http://joycarlough.smugmug.com/Thermal-Masterpieces/i-6x54q9D

Continue our twilight walk