06-20 Colter's Hell – The Yellowstone

Yes, the geysers. Yes, Old Faithful. Yes the sulfurous fumaroles. But so much more. Canyons and big walls. Sub-alpine grasslands. Expansive meadows covered with spring grasses brushed by strokes of sunlight. Bison, grizzly and prong horn. Signs of glacial action, hinted at in the Tetons, are everywhere. There is an overwhelming sense of time here. Geologic time. You see its slow change in the practically every formation and the bubbling waters and fumaroles tell you change has not stopped. Cirques, tarns, moraines, hanging valleys and erratics are seen without making the effort to look. They leap out at you, forcing you to take notice. Beauty on a grand scale, a massive and grand scale. Rivers, like the Gardiner, knifing its way to a V shaped lower level or a meandering stream in a U shaped valley where a glacier once plowed its way downhill.
No wonder no one believed Colter when he returned with stories of what he had seen. Or Bridger. Or me, so I took photos.