What an interesting place, definitely one of my favorite spots we stopped at. It was fascinating to see the earth reacting to the thermal qualities caused by Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super volcano on the planet! It definitely makes you realize that your time on this planet can be altered any minute if Caldera were to erupt. There were 3 major eruptions spanning from 1-3 million years ago which formed a lot of the geology in the park. We saw a bunch of geysers and hot springs, but my favorite was the Grand Prismatic Springs. This is the largest hot spring in the united states. The water reflects light and the perimeter matches ROY G BIV! Being a color enthusiast, I absolutely was taken with this spring. The reason the colors are so vivid is because of the bacteria in the water reacting to the different temperatures. This spring in particular is about 160 degrees in heat, on the surface. Touching the water and even walking on the land around it is not permitted. They have wooden walkways that are strictly for foot traffic. Unfortunately, we heard about a man falling into one of the springs about a month ago and died because of the elements. Mother Nature is definitely not something to test. I saw a man reach down and touch the water and immediately yelled in pain from burning his hand (like an idiot). There were also geysers that spewed out gas and water, and man they were STANK. There is a lot of sulfur in the water at Yellowstone, so when these geysers emit gas, they smell so rotten. The very first sight I saw was a small geyser that erupted right as I was passing it. I had no idea about the sulfur and was immediately engulfed in the gas and I thought the smell along with the heat was going to kill me. Whats fascinating about geysers is they're basically huge tunnels that go under the earths crust and when water gets down there and reacts with magma, it heats it and causes a reaction where it shoots boiling hot water out of the tunnel. To watch this happen its a little unsettling to be reminded that this planet is precious and you never know when it will go off! Definitely a scary and humbling thought. From a scientific perspective, Yellowstone is very interesting and amazing to see. From a photographic perspective, it's even more beautiful because of the different elements and colors around the park. Yellowstone is also home to a lot of animals and some that are even endangered. There are signs posted up everywhere warning you of the dangers of wildlife so I thought FOR SURE we would see a lot...... Well we didn't. We saw one bison which was one of the highlights of the trip, and a few mule deer. One of my biggest fears in traveling across country was the wildlife and seeing bears. snakes, spiders, scorpions, coyotes, mountain lions, and we honestly haven't seen much. That to me is a good thing but if I were to see any of the mammals I hoped to see them while driving around. All in all Yellowstone was amazing and we are only sad that we didn't have more time to explore the entire park. This is probably the first national park we could see ourselves coming back to, to explore it in its entirety
