Yellowstone Nationalpark

More than once we were completely stunned in the oldest national park of the world, the Yellowstone National Park.

 

On an area of 9000 square kilometers it offers and combines extreme landscapes, impressive wildlife and incredible natural spectacles. So we did not only spend one or two days here like most of the visitors, but extended  our stay first for one day, than another day, and another day and.... to enjoy all these wonders with enough time. 

Yellowstone has been created by a super volcano and one still can find one third of the active geysers of the world here. So there are a lot of high fontains, hot springs, mud holes, stinky steam valves all over the place.

 

We were incredibly lucky to observe the eruption of the highest geyser. It carries the matching name "steamboat". No one can predict when this geyser will erupt, but after more than four years inactivity it erupted this year already 13 times and at one time we were right in front of it. The fontain was 80m high and after the eruption the steam could still be seen from far away for hours.

A very special experience, but it took us several hours to clean our van afterwards. Although standing far away on a parking lot it was covered all over with some kind of lime and we could hardly look through the windshield.

But maybe even more impressive than the fontains are the brilliant colours bacteria create in the hot springs and pools. Red, purple, pink, yellow, blue,.... it depends on the temperature of the water and the special bacteria which lives in it. But we have never seen something like that and did not even know that it exists. Here in Yellowstone nature is really an artist who knows how to produce beautiful scenes and pictures.

Doch seinen Namen hat der Park von einer Schlucht, deren Wände sich durch unterschiedlich gelbes Gestein auszeichnen und unwahrscheinlich plastisch erscheinen. Tief hat sich der Yellowstone River hier eingegraben.

We don't want to forget to mention the wildlife, especially the bisons. Big herds of these giant somehow primeval animals cross the grasslands. Some we could observe pretty close. They do not seem to be bothered by the masses of visitors. And if they want to cross the road, they cross the road. Even if the whole traffic has to stop, nobody would dare to chase them and risk a fight with a bison, which weighs nearly a ton.