Yellowstone National Park

Intro
Every time I visit Yellowstone, there is something new to see. The photographic opportunities are plentiful - geysers, hot springs, wildlife, waterfalls, and dramatic landscapes. Our visit to Yellowstone this fall was bookended by exploring the Tetons (read more here). Upon our initial arrival in the park, we made a midday stop to see Old Faithful go off. It was quite busy, even for late September. By late morning parking lots for places like Midway Geyser Basin and Norris Geyser Basin were overflowing out onto the roadways. We focused our time in Yellowstone along the lower section of the Grand Loop Road, starting at sunrise and going until early afternoon. Afternoons were for relaxing and getting a coffee at a local coffee shop in West Yellowstone, MT where we stayed in a vacation rental. In the evenings, we went out to photograph sunset. We opted not to explore the northern section of the Grand Loop Road, because of our limited time and the section of road from Canyon Village to Tower-Roosevelt was closed. Standout photography moments on this trip included seeing my favorite geyser (Great Fountain Geyser) erupt twice, photographing one of my favorite moody forests, and seeing wolves in the wild for the first time.

In this post, I’ve highlighted some of the waterfalls, geyser basins and wildlife that we photographed.

Waterfalls - Moose Falls, Gibbon Falls, Lower Yellowstone Falls
Geyser basins - West Thumb Geyser Basin, Firehole Lake Drive & Great Fountain Geyser, Fountain Paint Pot, Midway Geyser Basin, Biscuit Basin, Black Sand Basin
Wildlife - Elk, Bison, Wolves

The map below shows the locations of the waterfalls and geyser basins.

All photos were taken by me on a Sony A7RIII from Sept 28-Oct 1, 2021.

Waterfalls
We visited three waterfalls on this trip: Moose Falls, Gibbon Falls, and Lower Yellowstone Falls. For more on waterfalls in Yellowstone, see this post. Moose Falls is one of my favorites in the park and our timing for visiting it worked out well as I was able to get a nice sunburst through the trees. Gibbon Falls has a large paved walking area along the road that offers several vantage points for photos. We photographed Lower Yellowstone Falls from Artist Point. It was one of the busier stops that we made and had to wait for space along the rock wall to take photos.

Lower Yellowstone Falls
93mm, ISO 100, f/8, 1/400 sec
Late morning - September 29

Geyser Basins

West Thumb Geyser Basin
What was a nice, calm, sunny morning turned very windy and mostly cloudy when we stepped out of the car to walk around West Thumb Geyser Basin. It was close to noon when we got there and the parking lot was busy, but not full. About a mile (0.62 km) of boardwalks winds around thermal features and the shore of Yellowstone Lake. Because of the strong wind, we opted for a shorter walk and only stopped at Black Pool and Abyss Pool on the north end. In bright sunlight, Black Pool is a brilliant blue color and one of the most beautiful pools in Yellowstone.

Black Pool
31mm, ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/1000 sec
Noon - September 28

Firehole Lake Drive & Great Fountain Geyser
This area of Yellowstone is my favorite! Firehole Lake Drive is a loop that passes by multiple geysers, hot springs and open meadows. Great Fountain Geyser is the star of this area, in my opinion. It’s a beautiful, terraced geyser that erupts every 10-14 hours. About an hour before it erupts, water will start to flow out from the center and over the terraces. The boiling in the center intensifies before it begins erupting. The eruption itself can last 45-60 minutes and consists of a series of bursts. The average height of its eruptions is 100 ft. We were fortunate enough to witness a sunset eruption and a near sunrise eruption. The sunset eruption we photographed was the only evening we had clouds during our visit in Yellowstone. This gave us some nice color that lit up the sky.

23mm, ISO 320, f/10, 1/13 sec
Sunrise - September 29

The meadows and forests around Firehole Lake Drive are especially beautiful on chilly mornings when steam rises from the thermal areas. This creates a constantly changing, moody dynamic great for photography.

27mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/10 sec
Sunrise - September 30

31mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/160 sec
Sunrise - September 30

62mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/80 sec
Sunrise - September 30

47mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/640 sec
Sunrise - September 30

38mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/400 sec
Sunrise - September 30

Fountain Paint Pot
The Fountain Paint Pots trail is a series of boardwalks that winds around thermal features. The trail is about 0.6 mi (0.97 km) in length and is mostly flat. The trail starts by crossing over water covered bacterial mats. The water is so flat and calm here that it looks like glass and nicely reflects some of the surrounding trees. The boardwalk loops around passing by a variety mud pots, hot springs, fumaroles and geysers. It’s well worth a stop.

28mm, ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/200 sec
Early morning - September 29

The two photos below were taken on opposite ends of the day. They were taken at a similar spot along the boardwalk next to the Fountain Paint Pots geothermal feature. You can see the difference that the cold, morning air makes on the amount of steam visible.

27mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/200 sec
Early morning - September 29

Fountain Geyser
44mm, ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/80 sec
Sunset - September 29

24mm, ISO 320, f/5.6, 1/40 sec
Twilight after sunset - September 29

Midway Geyser Basin
Midway Geyser Basin is one of the most popular geyser basins in the park due to the famous Grand Prismatic Spring. We arrived here in early morning to beat the crowds. Because of the cold morning air, the steam from the thermal features created a layer of frost and ice across many sections of the 0.8 mile (1.29 km) boardwalk. This made walking around quite slippery and slow. I was really surprised to see how dry some of the bacterial mats around Grand Prismatic Spring were (see 2nd pic below). I don’t remember them being so dry the last time I visited (2011).

Excelsior Geyser Crater
16mm, ISO 100, f/8, 1/200 sec
Mid-morning - September 30

16mm, ISO 100, f/8, 1/250 sec
Mid-morning - September 30

Grand Prismatic Spring
25mm, ISO 100, f/8, 1/200 sec
Mid-morning - September 30

Biscuit Basin
0.7 miles (1.13 km) of boardwalk guides you around Biscuit Basin. This particular thermal basin is not overly impressive but does have a couple of nice features. I was really hoping to see more of Sapphire Pool, but the steam was too thick early in the morning. If you continue the trail on the west side it takes you to Mystic Falls. We didn’t go there this time, but it’s definitely worth the walk.

46mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/200 sec
Early morning - September 30

57mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/640 sec
Early morning - September 30

Black Sand Basin
We had some fantastic lighting and steam during an early morning visit to Black Sand Basin. There is a section of the 0.5 mile (0.8 km) boardwalk that winds its way out to Emerald Pool. Photographing that winding boardwalk (pic below) was my favorite part of this stop. As with Biscuit Basin, there was too much steam early in the morning to get much of a glimpse of the colors in the thermal pools.

Green Spring
18mm, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/400 sec
Early morning - October 1

16mm, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec
Early morning - October 1

Wildlife
In Yellowstone, you never know what wildlife you’ll see just around the bend or over the next hill. When driving around, I always keep a camera with a telephoto lens in my lap. Often the best chances at photographing wildlife here will be out the car window. We didn’t see many elk, but could sometimes hear their bugling near sunrise and sunset. We saw a few small groups of bison throughout the park and a larger group in Hayden Valley. The best wildlife sighting came the day we saw wolves! I had never seen wolves in the wild. We pulled over on the side of the road just north of the Fountain Paint Pots area and I shot several photos out the window. There was a group of two wolves that met up and took turns howling, which was so cool to hear. A third wolf appeared in the trees beyond and eventually the two wolves turned to join it. It was really amazing to see.

Thanks for reading!

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