Yellowstone Park - Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park

                

Colter Bay

                                                                                                                                                                                   --Gordon

      If you like to hike, go to Grand Teton!!!!!

      Grand Teton is great for mountaineers. You can hike at amazingly high mountains!!! Grand Teton is very famous for hiking, fishing, rafting, camping, and playing in water.

building stone castle at Colter Bay

found a castle flag!

putting the flag onto the castle

      At Colter Bay, you can try a newest thing for sandcastle, a stone castle!!! No matter what, it can't be washed away. At South Jenny Lake, sand and stone are everywhere. You can take great pictures. What great sandcastle material!!!Grand Teton is great and fun! fun!! fun!!!

silly me

      Visit us at our exiting new trip! (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Niagara Falls, and Washington D.C.!!!)  It is coming soon.

snow on the mountain peak

Grand Teton National Park

~Aaron



road to Jenny Lake

      Grand Teton has lots of wonderful things. We visited the awesome Colter Bay Visitor Center. Playing in the Colter Bay and Jenny Lake was fun. The Grand Teton mountain range attracts tons of climbers every year. A very excellent place is Grand Teton National Park.

lifting up a super heavy moose antler

      The Colter Bay Visitor Center is home to lots of interesting stuff. A video of Grand Teton's history can be found there. It tells about how John D. Rockefeller established and donated Grand Teton National Park in 1929. Guess what? We found some horns and bones of animals in a bin. Lifting up heavy moose antlers, touching pronghorn antelope's horns and bighorn sheep horns, are cool. A wonderful place in Grand Teton National Park is the Colter Bay Visitor Center.

building sand
castles

      Playing in the Jenny Lake and Colter Bay, making castles was fun. Stones and sand found in Jenny Lake can be used to make some strong sandcastles. Don't try making an island in the water then making a castle on top; it takes too long. Weeds and stones in Colter Bay created the strongest castle. The stones and the weeds together make it nearly impossible to wash away. Making castles in Colter Bay and Jenny Lake makes a visit more exciting.

Grand Teton

      The Teton mountain range is young, restless, and still rising. Do you know how old the young mountain range is? It is 9 million years old! People are proud to stand on the top of Grand Teton. Every day, it's getting harder and harder to climb to the peak since it's still growing. Climbers are all attracted to the Grand Teton.

      Grand Teton is full of magnificent things. The Colter Bay Visitor Center gives out lots of amazing facts. Climbers think that the Grand Teton is the best mountain to conquer in the world. Jenny Lake and Colter Bay are places to have lots of fun playing around. The coolest place in the world is Grand Teton National Park.

the Teton mountain range

Yellowstone Park - West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone

West Thumb Geyser Basin 

-- Gordon

beautiful West Thumb

          West Thumb is terrific. You can walk on a boardwalk and enjoy the sights.   
      

          West Thumb is the west bay of the Yellowstone Lake, shaped like a human hand. It provides habitat for spawning cutthroat trout. You can take beautiful pictures from every point of West Thumb Geyser Basin!!!





Fishing Cone

          Fishing Cone is amazing! In the oldern times, you could fish for cutthroat trout at  Fishing Cone.  Cooking-on-the-hook was why fishermen love to go fishing at Fishing Cone!!! That is why Fishing Cone is famous!!! Now fishing at Fishing Cone is prohibited.

Black Pool, which used to be black



          Black Pool was once black when temperature was lower. The water temperature rose in 1991. It makes the pool prettier, but not black any more. Black Pool is Great!!! 

          Lakeshore Geyser erupts frequently and high. It could blast up to 25 feet high. Recently, the eruptions have been very small. Scientists think that there is going to be an eruption from Yellowstone's supervolcano soon. That will effect Lakeshore Geyser. It may become forceful again.   Lakeshore Geyser is COOL! 

          West thumb is The Perfect Attraction In YELLOWSTONE!!!

West Thumb Geyser Basin

=Aaron



beautiful scenery from West Thumb

the West Thumb part of
the Yellowstone Lake

      Welcome to the exciting West Thumb. The recipe for making West Thumb: the 640,000 year old Yellowstone caldera, and another 125,000 year old caldera filled with water. There are many heat vents in the bottom, under the surface, or near West Thumb. Kepler Cascades thunders down the hillside. West Thumb is a very wonderful place.

      West Thumb houses the most deepest part of the Yellowstone Lake, the largest lake in North America above 8,000 feet elevation. Doesn't the water seem to be hot when you find out 3,100 gallons of hot water from geysers pour into the lake every day? Actually, 45 Fahrenheit turns out to be the average summer water temperature! The cold water provides the perfect spawning ground for cutthroat trout. A long time ago, in the 1890s and the early 1900s, visitors could explore the lake around on a steamboat. An awesome place is West Thumb.

the mini volcanoes of Thumb Paint Pots

the 2 vents of currently
underwater Lakeshore Geyser

Fishing Cone
underwater in spring and
early summer

Big Cone

     

      Geysers and mud pots can be found in, under, and near West Thumb. Thumb Paint Pots, a mud pot, sometimes throws mud 25 feet high from 3-4 feet tall mud volcanos. Lakeshore Geyser's two vents often splash water a few feet high but some records in 1920s and 1930s show that it erupted 25 feet high. Fishing Cone was a geyser where people could fish and cook their fish without taking it off the hook by dipping it in the geyser hole. Now, the fishing isn't allowed on the Fishing Cone. In spring and early summer, the famous Fishing Cone is found underwater. Big Cone geyser has rare eruptions of only 1 foot or more. Twin Geyser rarely erupts, with the last eruption in 1999. Thumb Geyser sort of looks like a little pool with probably infrequent eruptions. West Thumb has lots of cool geysers and mud pots.


Twin Geysers that rarely erupt

Abyss Pool from a distance

Bluebell Pool  shaped like a blue bell

      A bunch of wonderful hot springs can be found near West Thumb. Lakeside Spring is constantly changing. Black Pool used to be black like what its name suggests. The water temperature rose, killing the black microbes, transforming Black Pool into a quiet and beautiful pool. The Blue Pools were renamed after a 1959 earthquake to Seismograph and Bluebell Pools. When Abyss Pool erupted in 1991, it took its neighbors' spring water (the Blue Funnel Spring, Ephedra Spring, and Perforated Pool), which proved that the pools are linked together by underground tunnels. Luckily, neighbors' spring water came back an year later. In 2010, the Blue Funnel Spring, Ephedra Spring, and Perforated Pool drained. The underwater thermal features lie in the deep waters of Yellowstone Lake.



the colorful Abyss Pool from a close-up view

Kepler Cascades

      The cool Kepler Cascades creates a thundering noise that can be heard all the way from the outlook platform. Water travels down lots of layers to the bottom. A trail leading toward Lone Star Geyser, a famous landmark of Yellowstone can be found next to the Kepler Cascades. Kepler Cascades is very wonderful.

      Guess why it was named West Thumb? The awesome Yellowstone Lake is shaped like a  human hand. West Thumb is the western bay that would be the thumb. Yellowstone's features can all be found in, under, or near West Thumb. Kepler Cascades creates a nice mist to take a picture of. West Thumb is one of the best place in Yellowstone.





hot springs

Yellowstone Park - Sulphur Caldron and Fishing Bridge, Yellowstone

Sulphur Caldron and Fishing Bridge

- Gordon

cars on the Fishing Bridge

People allowed fishing
at Fishing Bridge
before 1973

Want to go fishing? Want to see acidic things? Go to Fishing Bridge, actually, long, long ago you could fish at Fishing Bridge, but now it’s illegal to fish at Fishing Bridge!!! Now all you can see is people who walk on the boardwalk, not fish on the boardwalk!!!

Sulphur Caldron is the most acidic mudpot in Yellowstone. Hold your nose, you don’t want to smell a lot of Sulphur. It smells like ewe, stinky, rotting fruit.

Sulphur Caldron and Fishing Bridge is very exciting. It is the BEST OF ALL!!!!!

              

Fishing Bridge, Mud Volcano, Yellowstone Lake,

and Sulphur Caldron



Beautiful view of tremendous Yellowstone Lake

* Aaron

               Some very exciting places are Fishing Bridge, Yellowstone Lake, Mud Volcano, and Sulphur Caldron. On the way there, we saw the Sulphur Caldron nearly as acidic as battery acid and the cool Mud Volcano! Fishing Bridge used to be a popular fishing spot for tourists in the 1900s. Do you know why they won’t let fishing on the Fishing Bridge anymore? Park managers found out that by fishing on the Fishing Bridge, the trout population would eventually disappear. We also saw the amazing Fishing Bridge Visitor Center. Trying to defend our sand ‘castles’ against the waves in Yellowstone Lake was a really awesome game. According to my dad, they look more like piles of bison dung. The most fun place in Yellowstone is Fishing Bridge.

Can you find a bison behind us?

Cooking Hillside
shake, then bake

Dragon's Mouth Spring
has continuously
loud sound

               The amazing Sulphur Caldron, the most acidic pool in Yellowstone, has pH (power of hydrogen) 1.  It is about the same as pH 0, battery acid. Across from the road, the Mud Volcano trail goes around in a loop to help people see many beautiful hydrothermal features. Some examples are the 170 Fahrenheit Churning Caldron, Grizzly Fumarole which is dry in the summer, Mud Volcano that had blown itself apart, and Dragon’s Mouth Spring that until 1994, used to throw muddy water over the railing. Look, a bison is taking a nap by the hot spring. It must want to warm up. Sulphur Cauldron and Mud Volcano trail are both the most magnificent place in Yellowstone.



Sulphur Caldron,
the most acidic pool in Yellowstone

Churning Caldron from a distance

roiling Churning Caldron

playing under Fishing Bridge

               Fishing Bridge is a very excellent place in Yellowstone. Cutthroat trout spawning grounds sat right beneath the Fishing Bridge so fishing was banned from there recently in 1973. The bridge is still a Yellowstone landmark even if fishing is illegal. Now, instead of people fishing on the Fishing Bridge, cars drive across the Yellowstone River on the bridge. The Fishing Bridge is a very interesting place.

holding up a heavy bison head

elk head

               The Fishing Bridge Visitor Center is very awesome. It had bison skulls, feathers, horns, bighorn sheep horns, elk skulls with horns, and backbones. There were also many stuffed birds to show visitors where each bird lives. Some of the birds were California gulls, woodpeckers, and finches. If you are lucky enough, you may get a chance to hear a very funny and informational speech from park rangers.

 

Yellowstone lake and snowy mountain

 

building sand castles
at the beach of Yellowstone Lake

              The Fishing Bridge Visitor Center has a short path leading to the Yellowstone Lake. Playing and splashing around in the Yellowstone Lake is very exciting. Our sand ‘castles’ looked like lumps of shapeless clay to me. My brother had the job of building the defenses of the castles. I got the job of trying to stop all of the waves from hitting our castles. We worked together and our castles still survived for an hour. The Yellowstone Lake is a very wonderful place.



hot spring

               Yellowstone Lake, Sulphur Caldron, Mud Volcano, and Fishing Bridge are very magnificent. The Sulphur Caldron and Mud Volcano trail all show famous features of Yellowstone. Fishing Bridge continues to be an important Yellowstone landmark after decades of not letting people fish on the bridge. The Fishing Bridge Visitor Center tells lots of wonderful facts about plants and animals. Playing in the Yellowstone Lake was very exciting. Yellowstone Lake, Sulphur Cauldron, Mud Volcano, and Fishing Bridge are all famous parts of Yellowstone.



bison resting at Cooking Hillside

Yellowstone Park - Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

~ Aaron

facts about the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

     

      Welcome to the cool Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Two falls lead into it: the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls. The Upper Yellowstone Falls thunders at 109 feet tall while the Lower Yellowstone Falls has 308 feet of white water. We even played in a river! An amazing place is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

the 308-feet tall
Lower Falls



 



the 109-feet high Upper Falls

      The Yellowstone River, which flows from Yellowstone Lake to outside of the park, carved out the Grand Canyon. Hot water keeps acting on volcanic rock. When the rock falls in the water, the Yellowstone River continues eroding the rock and creates the canyon’s colors. The beautiful waterfalls mark the beginning and the ending of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,  which exists at about 27 miles long  and  800-1200 feet deep. The grand 308-feet tall Lower Falls and 109-feet Upper Falls shows the beginning of the canyon, while the Tower Fall marks the end of the canyon.  Tower Fall tumbling 132 feet, which was named for the rock ‘towers’, shows where a 1,500-4,000 feet wide canyon ends. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone  is one of the most beautiful and breath-taking  scene in the park.



the 132-feet Tower Falls

walking in Lamar River

where muddy meets clear

playing in the Lamar River

     

      Soda Butte Creek and Lamar River create the perfect spot for playing. When the muddy Soda Butte Creek meets the clear Lamar River, it forms a clear border line in the middle of water. The border line gradually disappears when water from both rivers starts mixing together. We touched, walked in, and played in the Lamar River, while watching a herd of the bison peacefully grazing the grass on the bank.  What a wonderful place Soda Butte Creek is!

      The awesome Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone has many pretty colors and waterfalls. Some beautiful waterfalls include the Tower Falls, Lower Yellowstone Falls, Upper Yellowstone Falls. Playing around in the Lamar River was exciting. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is the most excellent place in Yellowstone.

Grand Canyon

~ Gordon

      Welcome to the great landmark of Yellowstone: Rhyolite!!!     

The Grand Canyon
of Yellowstone

      Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is awesome. The magnificent yellow rock is called rhyolite. Yellowstone River flows through the amazing yellow rock forming a powerful, humongous waterfall. It carves the adorable Rhyolite, just like Grand Canyon. That's how the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone got its name!!!

      The Lower Falls is 308 feet tall, as high as Steamboat Geyser, world's tallest unpredictable active geyser. The fascinating Upper Falls is 109 feet high! Have you found something interesting? The Lower Falls is higher than the Upper Falls!!! What a Grand Sight!

      Yellowstone's Grand Canyon is very tremendous!!!

Calcite Springs: oil and sulphur
The beautiful colors of Calcite Springs hide a secret. The heat of underground
cracks release oil from rocks deep below the surface to slowly rise to the surface.