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Description of Pictures: Two days here: (000830) and (000831).
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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
YSTONE_000830_009.JPG: Yellowstone, Wyoming. These elk were basically the first thing I saw in the park. I had gone in the north entrance early in the morning and was going to the park headquarters and there they were.
YSTONE_000830_029.JPG: Not the most comfortable way to feed I guess...
YSTONE_000830_032.JPG: This is the Mammoth Hot Springs area.
YSTONE_000830_046.JPG: It's always a challenge for the brainless and rude to not through sticks into these things. As you can see though, even the strongest moron may give in though.
YSTONE_000830_094.JPG: This large bird was perched on this car's rear-view mirror. Note the person in the mirror, sitting in their car. After the bird left, the woman said she was terrified to get out of the car because of the big bird right there.
YSTONE_000830_101.JPG: Yep. You're about to see Old Faithful do its thing. They point out that the outburst has become smaller over time, in part, they say, due to "vandalism" -- presumably people dumping things in the holes.
YSTONE_000830_106.JPG: Bison
YSTONE_000830_112.JPG: Fire Power
The same devastating crown fire burned forest on both sides of the Lewis River Canyon. Shooting firebrands far in advance of the wall, the wind-whipped blaze leaped this 500-yard-wide natural barrier.
The scene puts human-made barriers -- roads, bulldozers lines -- in perspective. Even the most resourceful firefighting crews cannot control fires of this magnitude.
At Yellowstone, regeneration is at least as powerful a force as wildfire. Every 200 to 400 years, fires as catastrophic as the 1988 blaze have swept across the plateau -- yet the vegetation and wildlife have thrived.
YSTONE_000830_133.JPG: The changing thermals caused the road to collapse so they just blocked off an area of it.
YSTONE_000831_001.JPG: Yellowstone, Wyoming.
The Madison Elk Herd
From an elk's perspective, this valley offers everything needed for year-round survival. Food is abundant. These meadows become snow-free relatively early and stay lush longer into summer. During May-June calving season, nearby lodgepole pine forests shelter newborns from coyotes and bears.
In 1988, fires burned the slopes across the river. For the next several years, the dense forest will be more open and less sheltering, which may affect the movement of the herd. Harsh or mild winters, however, continue to be the great regulator of the elk population here and throughout the park.
YSTONE_000831_022.JPG: Petrified Tree
Subtropical Yellowstone
This petrified redwood is a clue to a warmer, damper, more violent Yellowstone landscape. Anatomically, the trunk is indistinguishable from present-day redwoods in California.
When a chain of volcanoes erupted here in Eocene times 50 million years ago, they triggered massive landslides into mountain and valley streets. The rolling mix of ash, water and sand buried whole forests. Before the trees could rot, abundant silica in the volcanic flow plugged living cells, creating "forests of stone."
Volcanic ask and mudflows obliterated a living landscape yet preserved this tree for the ages. There were three redwoods standing here before thoughtless souvenir hunters chipped away the other two.
YSTONE_000831_029.JPG: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming