Yellowstone National Park (Part 1)

Roosevelt Arch at Yellowstone National Park's Entrance

Engineer's office at Yellowstone

Mammoth Hotel

Store where we bought our souvenirs and our lunch

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces were formed by rock fractures, heat and water with shades of orange, pink and green created by microorganisms in the water.

Liberty Cap- this 37 foot high hot spring cone is located in northern part of Mammoth Hot Springs area

Palette Spring- the water flows from a flat area and then down a steep ridge, creating a colorful hillside palette of brown, green, and orange (the colors are due to the presence of thermophiles- heat loving microorganisms) 

Another view of Palette Spring

Palette Spring

Another View of Palette Spring

Orange Spring Mound

Canary Spring

A map of Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces

Overlooking Main Terrace

Main Terrace,  a bit gloomy

Angel Terrace

Norris Geyser Basin

Norris Geyser Basin- one of the hottest and most dynamic of Yellowstone's hydrothermal areas

Fumaroles- or steam vent is the hottest hydrothermal features in the park

Whirligig Geyser- Living thermometer, orange color is around 122- 140F; green- 100-133F; "thermophile"- microorganisms that thrive in heat and living in geyser

Whirligig Geyser- green area is where the thermophilic algae lives, temperature ranges from 100to 133F while the orange area the temperature ranges from 122- 140F

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Our first stop during our road trip to Florida was at Yellowstone National Park.  We are relocating now to Florida, the sunshine state :-) so from Washington state we drove all the way to Florida, from West to East Coast, around 3,153 miles plus (if we are driving straight to our reserved hotel).

We had only few stops to see some scenic views along our way to Florida since our schedule was only limited to 1 week.  Our plan was to go straight to Orlando before heading to our main destination, which is at the northwest part of Florida, Hurlburt Field or if you're not familiar with that military air force base station, it's close to Fort Walton Beach or a 40minute to an hour drive to Pensacola.

We passed 12 states (in order):  Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi,  Alabama, Georgia, Florida.

We left Washington June 17th and arrived in Orlando, June 23rd. Our initial plan was supposed to be in Orlando by 22nd but we stayed 1 day in Kansas at our friend's house and took a rest for awhile.

June 17, our first day road trip- we took Interstate 90 via Spokane WA to Idaho and then stayed overnight in Bozeman, Montana.  It took us 12 hours our first day. We were all exhausted. We arrived around 12midnight and we were so hungry just bought KFC to go and ate at our hotel.

June 18- Went to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.  This was really in our itinerary I really have to see Yellowstone, I've been dying to see this park :-)  Due to our limited time we only spent 5 hours and only saw Mammoth Hot Springs, Norris Geyser Basin and Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and some wild animals while driving around the area.

Yellowstone National Park is the first national park in the world located in Wyoming, it also extends to Idaho and Montana. It is known to many wild life, geothermal features especially the famous "Old Faithful Geyser" which unfortunately I didn't see it but luckily I was able to see the Grand Canyon on Yellowstone :-) ....at least hehehe.

I will be posting more pictures of Yellowstone on my part 2.