July 4th marked our final day in Yellowstone National Park. While we had made it out to see Old Faithful earlier in the week, we too a break from seeing geysers to make sure we saw the rest of the park and the Grand Tetons. Now that we had “glimpsed it all,” we headed back to cover what we missed in the Old Faithful area. A week is just not enough time to do Yellowstone, the world’s first national park, justice.
In the Old Faithful Geyser area, are Riverside Geyser and Morning Glory Spring, a spring that many heralded as one of the most beautiful in the park–until the vents at the bottom of the spring became clogged with debris thrown in by many moronic tourists in the decades before us. The obstructions have changed the dynamics of the pool, including the temperature, so the color has shifted. Park staff have yet to figure out how to remove the debris without further damaging the spring.It’s truly a shame.
Morning Glory Spring is not the only feature to suffer at the hands of tourists, either. Old Faithful has had a large chunk of it’s once prominent crown removed by souvenir hunting visitors. Minute Geyser, which at one time was very close to the main road through the park, but the road has since been relocated used to spout up to 50 feet as often as the name implies, but rocks tossed in by thoughtless visitors plugged the vent forcing the water to find an alternate outlet that now only reaches 4 feet, and does not occur nearly as often. Earlier this month, despite a ban on drones in national parks, a selfish tourist crashed his illegally piloted device into Grand Prismatic Spring.
I hope by sharing these photos, you will also see how truly beautiful, unique, and amazing Yellowstone National Park is, so when you plan your own trip, you’ll treat it, and it’s features with the care and respect they deserve.
The gallery below contains the best images from our final day in Yellowstone National park. The slideshow should start automatically, if you see an image you like, you can mouse over it to show the parts that don’t display in the viewer, or you can click on it and the full image will pop up. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed shooting them.
