The view from Dead Indian Summit Overlook

The view from Dead Indian Summit Overlook on Friday July 27 was quite spectacular as the view westward generally towards Yellowstone National Park show the steep mountain road on the right-center foreground and valleys and mountain ranges as we stopped here along the road between Cody Wyoming and the Northeast Entrance to the park.  Along the way, the road is steep and winding before entering the valley generally to the right third of this image and heading towards Montana to the Northwest of here.  You can even see some snow on the peaks just left of center on the horizon.  This 8 frame panorama taken with my 24mm lens and exposures of 1/500 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100 and was assembled with the Hugin Panorama Creator under Linux.

While at the overlook, quite a large crew of Chipmunks and Squirrels were there and not only entertaining fellow travelers, but happy to accept a small gratuity (of food, of course) from them.  This little guy didn't want to miss out on the activities as he climbed over rocks to get to the crowd of critters and humans.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

This picture is a 2nd squirrel munching a potato chip given to him by one of the other tourists.  Both these guys were around 5 inches long (head and body less the tail) and I suspect they are Sierra Nevada Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrels. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

I didn't get a very good shot of the little guy below.  He's got the pointier snout of a chipmunk along with the markings on his head and he was a little smaller than the other critters.  This shot was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

Campground views

After our late afternoon visit to Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park on Thursday July 26, we drove east past Yellowstone Lake and out the East Entrance towards Cody Wyoming - a place I'd visited during one of my families trips between Oregon and Michigan when I was 8 years old.  We found a campground with a couple empty camp sites well after dark at the Newton Creek Campground along the North Fork of the Shoshone River.  We were greeted by these views in the morning when we finally saw our surroundings in sunlight.  The steep hills and cliffs in the area are composed of sandstone debris flows with many sharp features including at least one window and one cave (see below) visible from this campground.  The image above is a panorama composed of 4 portrait format images taken with my 24mm lens with exposures of 1/1250 seconds at f/4, ISO 400.

Just off the left edge of the panorama above was this small cave feature near the top center.  This first image shows the setting for the next two and was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

Zooming in some, you can see more detail along with hints of many of the features on the cliffside in which this cave sits.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm zoom at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

Finally, zoomed in to 300mm focal length, you can see the cave interior as well as the sharp hoodoos on the left as well as along the top of the cliff and some coarse layering in the sandstone cliffs below the cave.  This image was taken with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

Old Faithful

Old Faithful erupted just about right on schedule. Ok, it was maybe a minute or two early.  The last time I was in Yellowstone and saw Old Faithful was in 1968 when my family stopped here on the way from Oregon to Michigan.  The place has really built up in 44 years and seems a lot more crowded than I remember. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/16, ISO 100.

The Firehole River

The Firehole River runs past Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin, Midway Geyser Basin and the Lower Geyser Basin before meeting the Gibbon River and turning into the Madison River.  This view is from a bridge at the start of the Fairy Falls trail.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 75mm with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Clepsydra Geyser

This is Clepsydra Geyser which was active continuously while we were in the area.  We saw it first from the road as we approached the parking area and is known for its almost continuous eruptions these days.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Fountain Paint Pot and nearby thermal features.

This is the Fountain Paint Pot which gave this trail its name.  These "Mudpots" are fairly thick in the late summer but the mud in the middle of this is continuously bubbling and boiling.  It does appear to have the thickness of paint.  This image was cropped from a frame taken with my 10mm fisheye with an exposure of 1/640 sec, f/8, ISO 100.

This is the very noisy Fumaroles.  This hissing fumerole was being outdone this day by its neighbor below, the Red Spouter.  It smelled of sulfur here too. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye with an exposure of 1/500 sec at f/8, ISO 100.

Red Spouter originated in 1959 with the Hebgen Lake Earthquake.  It was mostly just steaming when we were there, but it apparently changes its typical features during the year from a muddy hot spring in the spring  & early summer to small geyser that splashes reddish water several feet in the air to a big mudpot and then a hissing fumerole.  They sounded like the hissing fumerole the day were were there

Leather Pool has undergone changes in the recent past.  It supported leather-like thermophilic bacteria before the Hebgen Lake Earthquake in 1959 but became boiling after the earthquake, killing off the micro organisms and has since cooled back down.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Silex Spring & Bacterial Mats

This is an image of pretty blue Silex Spring along the short Fountain Paint Pot Trail along the road about midway between Madison and Old Faithful.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/400 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Along the boardwalk from the parking lot you can see the Bacterial Mats below the steaming (even in summer, so you can imagine how hot the water is!) Silex Spring.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm zoom at 75mm focal length.  The exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Someone dropped their hat into the Bacterial Mats - I would have left my favorite hat there too....  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Madison River pan

As we entered Yellowstone National Park via the west entrance, we almost immediately began following the Madison River.  With storm clouds in the east, I had to stop and take pictures of this almost calm river.  This pan was generated from 6 images taken with my 24mm lens.

The Three Buttes

On our way from Craters of the Moon National Monument to Yellowstone National Park, we stopped along the road to look at the Three Buttes.  From left to right is East Butte, Middle Butte and Big Butte.  Big Butte can be seen from Craters of the Moon for example in this image taken from near the Campground that I published on this blog recently.  This is a panorama assembled from seven images taken with my 24mm lens on my 20D.

The lone tree on top of Inferno Cone - take II

You can see the lone tree on top of Inferno Cone in this view from the loop road heading back to the entrance area of Craters of the Moon National Monument.  You can also see the shoulder on the right flank of Inferno Cone that fools climbers into thinking they've got a short hike to the summit ahead of them. This image was taken with my 24mm lens and an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

The Great Rift

This panorama was assembled from 9 images taken with my 24mm lens on my 20D during our visit to Craters of the Moon National Monument at the end of our Ranger led Broken Top Hike more than 2 weeks ago.  It shows a section of the "Great Rift", a  fracture that is the cause of the Craters of the Moon lava flows.  You can trace the sources of the lava flows to sources right along the Great Rift, from its north end to its south end.

The leftmost image from the pan shows the flank of Broken Top cinder cone on the right as well as distant cones in the background that run along the Great Rift to the north.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens on my 20D and an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

The rightmost image in the pan shows the flank of Broken Top cinder cone on the left as well as the flank of Big Cinder Butte on the right with the Great Rift running generally southward towards the cinder cone.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens looking into the sun with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Hiking among the lava flows

Our group, led by Craters of the Moon park ranger Rebecca, hikes along the trail at the base of Broken Top cinder cone with Pahoehoe lava flows to their left. This image was taken with my 24mm lens and an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

This panorama shows the lava flows between Broken Top cinder cone (behind the photographer) and Big Cinder Butte at the left in this pan.  This image was built from 7 frames taken with my 24mm lens on my 20D.

This is a Pahoehoe flow along the trail.  You can see a bluish tint to some of the surface layer.  The image was obtained with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

The section of this Pahoehoe lava was pushed up after it cooled so that you can see the layering inside.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens and an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Buffalo Lava Caves, Craters of the Moon National Monument

Entering the cave - not too much clearance!  I bumped my head a couple times....  We left most of our backpacks at the entrance.  This image taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

A view of some of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling of the lava cave - these are not caused by the usual dripping calcium Carbonate but instead by the rock on the cave wall melting in the heat of the lava flowing through the cave below it.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 3200 with a flashlight illuminating the central part of the image.

A view of more stalactites in the lava cave - smaller in this case than the first image.  This image is the combination of 2 images each with the flashlight pointed at slightly different parts of the ceiling , the exposures were 1/50 and 1/200 seconds, both at f/1.8, ISO 3200 with my 24mm lens.

Looking back at the entrance to the cave.  You can see the rough surface of the ceiling, covered in stalactites as well as the complex structure of the floor.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/60 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 3200.

These last two photos are different views of the same section of a collapsed cave section.  The ceiling was around 3 or 4 feet thick before its collapse.  In the upper image, you can see some horizontal banding in the cave wall which  are the result of lava flows of differing depths when this was an active lava tube.  I forgot to reset my camera for outdoors shooting after climbing out of the cave, so the first image was taken at 1/4000 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 3200, the 2nd (after the D'Oh! moment) was taken at 1/25 seconds at f/8, ISO 100, both with my 24mm lens.

Interesting rock structures

Walking around on lava flows finds lots of interesting features - here are regular fractures in basaltic lava flows near Broken Top cinder cone.  These fractures are similar to those found at the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland or Devils Tower in Wyoming, though with different shaped fractures and not as long a column as those well known structures.  It is likely caused by rapid cooling of the lava flows and these square patterns were visible over a large area.  The area is not far from some lava caves (see my next post!).  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Lava and cinder everywhere

These three shots show some of the variety in the lava fields around the base of Broken Top cinder cone at Craters of the Moon National Monument.  The first image shows a tilted layer of lava with a coating of cinder.  The last image shows some Pahoehoe lava flows.  The area is littered with debris from nearby spatter cones.  All the images were taken with a 24mm lens on my 20D, the first two with exposures of 1/2000 seconds at f/5 and the last 1/1250 seconds at f/5, all at ISO 400.

Broken Top lava flow panorama, Craters of the Moon National Monument

This partial panorama is from 8 images taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/2500 seconds at f/5, ISO 400.  This image looks over The Broken Top lava flow from the side of Broken Top cinder cone along the loop trail at the Big Sink Overlook.  The view is generally towards the north with a complex of cinder cones on the left including Inferno Cone, Snow Cone and Spatter Cones.

A pretty sunset

Sunset from the top of Inferno Cone was quite spectacular, complete with crepuscular rays to go with the clouds.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/3200 seconds at f/5, ISO 400.

The lone tree on top of Inferno Cone

Just before sunset, we hiked up Inferno Cone, a cinder cone near the center of Craters of the Moon.  The trail heads straight up the side of the cinder cone and looks short - until you get to the shoulder in the hill about halfway up.  There is a great view of the area from the summit, which is in the red rocks where I stood to take this image.  This lone tree is visible on top of this cinder cone from all over the park.  There are some trees below it on the hillside and some remains of other similar trees on the summit, but it is the only one presently on top.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/5, ISO 400.

Craters of the Moon Lava

This view from the edge of the North Crater lava flows shows the brown and grey color of the A'a lava.  In the distance is 300,000 year old Big Butte from much earlier volcanic activity.  Craters of the Moon has been active from about 15,000 years ago to about 2,000 years ago and may continue its activity in the future.  Unlike nearby Yellowstone, Craters of the Moon is a rift volcano with many small cinder cones and spatter cones issuing long lava flows.  The activity is concentrated along the "Great Rift" which runs along a roughly N-S line through the area.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

It was interesting to look closely at the lava rocks  This closeup was taken with my Nexus Android smartphone camera looking through my 10x hand magnifier.

This shows the rock as a whole - the closeup area is near the middle top of the rock in this orientation.  The rock is rotated a little counter clockwise from the view through the magnifier above.  This image was also taken with my Nexus Android smartphone camera.

North Crater Cinder Cone at Craters of the Moon

This was the view across the North Crater lava flow to North Crater Cinder Cone from our campsite in the Craters of the Moon National Monument campground last Tuesday.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm zoom at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/4, ISO 100.

New Neighbors

After a day of driving, we pulled into our campsite at Craters of the Moon National Monument.  This little guy was checking out his new neighbors from the adjacent lava fields.  He made quite a racket with his chirping - almost  sounded like a bird when I first heard him rather than the squirrel he was.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch

Tunnel Arch is along a side trail off the main Devils Garden trail at the end of the main road into Arches National Park.  I'm not sure which of these two arches is Tunnel Arch - they both go through though the one of the left is smaller and has a ceiling opening into the rock above it, so I suspect it is the larger one on the right.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/50 seconds at f/5, ISO 100.

Pine Tree Arch was the last one we visited on this hike into the Devils Garden trail area and is not too far beyond Tunnel Arch on the side trail off the Devils Garden trail.  You can even see it from the crest of the trail before it drops into the valley below.  If you look closely at the rock at the top of the opening in the arch, you can see lots of cracks that makes me think that only the slight "V" shape of the area and that the crack on the right doesn't go all the way through to the other side of the fin the arch is in is the only thing keeping these blocks of rock from falling and enlargening the arch.  I ran through the window in the arch quickly to minimize the probability that I would be under the block when it eventually falls....  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/80 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 100.

Sand Dune Arch

Sand Dune Arch in Arches National Park is a short and easy hike into a narrow canyon between two fins of sandstone.  The hard part of the hike is the soft sand but the tall canyon walls makes the area cooler than other more exposed hikes elsewhere in the park.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/50 seconds at f/5, ISO 100.

Landscape Arch panorama

This is a mini panorama of Landscape Arch in Arches National Park.  With my 24mm lens, I could not quite get the whole arch in one shot, but a left-center-right set worked great.  This arch is the longest in the world and has shown some signs of its eventual demise when  a large chunk of rock fell from it in 1991.  As the rangers in the park said: See it while you can!