Wednesday, 2 July 2014

The Shoshone River and East Yellowstone......30th June


It's beautiful blue sky morning as we head west along the Buffalo Bill Scenic Highway 52 miles to the East Entrance of Yellowstone firstly passing through a tunnel 6 miles west of Cody to the Buffalo Bill Dam and Visitor Centre.....
The Dam is in a narrow canyon of the Shoshone River, completed in 1910 it was one of the first concrete arch dams and at 325 feet high it was at the time the highest dam in the world and built to irrigate 90,000 acres of land in northwest Wyoming...
Fallen trees swept along the river through the lake/reservoir to the dam......we're not sure if these are cleared at anytime....
This is what I was saying about the Yellowstone area being so diverse....from geysers, forests and fertile valleys to  balancing rocks and in a later photo the red rock found in Sedona....
Part of the scenic highway....
Shoshone River.....
Snow melt cascading....
We're heading up to the snowline....
Sylvan Pass....8530 ft...Cody is at 5000 ft....
And down to beautiful Yellowstone Lake....not in this pic but you can see The Tetons from here.....as the crow/eagle flies only 82 miles away...
Steamboat Point, steam vents....
Yellowstone Lake the surface water is cold enough to kill by hypothermia, the lake bed is a geologic hot spot, at nearby Mary Bay the heat flow measurements are among the highest recorded on the park....
LeHardys Rapids on the Yellowstone River...have to say when we got out to look at the river here we hadn't expected such dramatic rapids......
A good boardwalk alongside of the river brings you to a torrent of water....

A Cut-Throat Trout "resting" at the side of the river......from now until mid July they jump the rapids to spawn farther up stream....
Colourful ducks mid rapids !!!!
Oops round another corner and a bison jam......
I just missed taking shots of this chap having a lovely dust bath next to a hot spring at the Mud Volcano area....
Churning Caldron..
We still find this so fascinating.....all this energy bubbling away...
Mud Volcano and a third mile boardwalk around various thermal mud pool/springs....

Dragon Breath...named by early settlers as the sounds coming from the cave are what one would expect a dragon to make should there be dragons of course !!
I've include this photo to show the diversity of Yellowstone....hot springs/mud pools with forest and grasslands in the background....
I know it's yet another photo of a bison but we are now miles from the park on our way home and this chap was just walking down the road.....there is a mountain on one side and a sheer drop down to the valley on the other .....
I know "never work with animals" but it was a case of grab the camera leap outside and take a quick shot, I'm surprised it came out at all as it's was gone 9pm and light low.....2 young bucks walking past our home on wheels....they go through the hole in the hedge...there is a narrow strip of grass then a highway on the other side but we guess they know that as it seems to be a regular evening walk !!!
An excellent day......Happy campers

2 comments:

  1. Hi Sue & Michael,
    Great pics as usual, how did you manage to spot the trout? Love the thought of going around a bend a seeing a bison ambling along the road. Song for the day at Dragon Breadth could have been "Puff the magic dragon" just a thought.
    Enjoy,
    Ann & Dave

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    1. It really is fascinating and they are soooo very big......dash why didn't I think of Puff.....now of course we shall be singing it all day.....we shall just have to tune into Wille's Roadhouse while en route to Buffalo....
      Yorkieman and Mrs B :)

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