The Grand Steamatic Spring?

Posted on by

Photo #286: Grand PrismaticLocation Taken: Yellowstone National Park
Time Taken: October 2012

Fabulous, isn’t it?

Truly one of nature’s most spectacular displays, right there for your viewing!

Really, it is!

Just mentally subtract the steam!

Oh, and a higher angle might help too. For one thing, that would reduce the glare on the water…

Just do all that and you’ll get something like this!

That is the Grand Prismatic Spring, one of the largest hot springs in Yellowstone, and certainly the most colorful. I was really looking forward to seeing it when I visited in late October.

Alas, the cold air, right around freezing actually, was making the steam much more thick than it is during the summer. And the low angle of the sun made the thin layer of water pouring out of the spring and covering the rock around it into a perfect mirror of the sky. Which is pretty, but not the same as the brilliant orange and red colors that were just under the water.

You can see some of the colors, if you look where the water meets the steam in this picture. A nice red tint, and some of that brilliant blue-green coming through. All much whiter than it really is, mind you. That steam really is thick.

And stinky, too. One of the things they don’t mention about Yellowstone is the constant smell of sulfur. Probably other things too, but sulfur is one of the few scents I can actually detect, so that’s the one I noticed. And it was in the air by every single hydrothermal feature, from Old Faithful to random steaming hole #253. By the time we got to Grand Prismatic, my lungs were starting to have issues with the combination of volcanic gases and high altitude, and I was certainly not willing to wait for the steam to clear enough for a decent view of the Spring.

Ah well, at least there are tons of fantastic photos of the Spring out there for me to enjoy, even if I couldn’t take one of my own.

  

It’s really tough to tell what plants are in winter. Aside from snow-covered.

Posted on by

Photo #285: Icy PlantsLocation Taken: Freeville, New York
Time Taken: December 2010

I had a long drive today, from southwestern Ohio to central Maryland. Eight hours or more in the car, five hundred miles or so, all the way across the Appalachian mountains.

We normally head home on January first each year, but we delayed to the second to spend another day where we where. And it let us avoid driving through the snow storm that hit the area on the first.

There was a nice snow cover where we started, crunching in that way only very cold snow does. There was snow in the foothills along the Ohio River. There was some nice thick snow high in the mountains of West Virginia. There was even snow in Hagerstown and Frederick, in the foothills on this side of the mountains.

And, well, about twenty miles away from home, the snow petered out. There’s not even a hint of ice here.

Figures.

So have a lovely snow-covered plant-flower-thing to celebrate the snow that almost made it all the way along with us on our trip, but decided not to finish the journey.

  

A Walk on the Philosophical Side…

Posted on by

Photo #284: Forest PathLocation Taken: Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland, Canada
Time Taken: July 2012

There’s a path in the woods, between a camp and a beach. It goes up a hill, or perhaps down it.

I’ve gone down it, and up it again. It looks different on the return trip, this place I just was.

Perhaps it is different, changed immensely in the time between the coming and the going. Or perhaps it is I that is different, changed ever so slightly by what I have seen, the beauty of the day.

Or maybe it’s just the angle change, since I really am seeing a different set of trees than I saw going the other way. Or at least the other side of those trees. And all this philosophizing is just useless banter and poppycock.

Ah well, I guess the realist in me won over the philosopher side…

  

On Seeing the Sites. Just Seeing, not Visiting, mind you.

Posted on by

Photo #283: Space NeedleLocation Taken: Seattle, Washington
Time Taken: June 2008

So, first time visiting a major city, what do you do?

If you answered “Go check out the famous landmarks”, well, I guess we’re on the same boat. Of course, if your answer was “Go grab something to eat because you’re really hungry after the long plane ride”, well, I guess that matches me too. Oh, and I suppose “Locate and hang out with the people you came to visit” also counts too. I did all of those rather quickly the first time I visited Seattle.

I haven’t actually stopped at the Seattle Space Needle, but well, we drove past it while heading to Pike’s Place for dinner and exploring. So, while we were stopped at a stoplight right by the Needle, I opened my car window and grabbed a photo as fast as I could. Really, I don’t have a need to see the city from the top of the Space Needle. I’ve seen it from above already, on the plane coming in.

And I certainly don’t need to eat at the restaurant up there. It’s appropriately overpriced, with the standard massive markup for eating in such an unusual place. Pike’s Place was much more my style, with its hordes of small ethnic eating places and food stands, all at decent prices.

I do find that quirk of my psychology interesting. I want to go see all the famous places, but I’m quite content with just seeing them. Even from a distance. It’s like I just want to confirm they exist or something, and anything else is just superfluous.

  

Up and Around and Up and Around and…

Posted on by

Photo #282: Navy Pier FerrisLocation Taken: Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois
Time Taken: April 2008

I’m not sure if I’ve ever been on a Ferris Wheel. I’ve seen a number over the years, but I don’t really have any recollection of seeing the world from the top of one, and that seems the sort of thing that would stick in my memory.

I mean, I still recall riding one of those flying swing things when I was seven or so, the one year we visited the local County Fair not long after we moved to the area. It’s those tall things with long sturdy chains hanging down a long distance, with a chair at the end of each chain. You sit in the chair, the top of the pole starts spinning, and the centripetal forces push you out and up until you’re flying nearly horizontal to the ground, nicely above the treetops. Quite fun, really.

I think the only times I had the opportunity to ride a Ferris Wheel, I was either far more interested in the other stuff going on around me or I was just passing trough the area and not actually stopping at the roadside festival going on.

For instance, here, I was going on a nice long photographing walk through a lot of downtown Chicago. Including visiting Navy Pier and Millennium Park and the like, major tourist spots I just hadn’t really visited in my few months living in the city. I didn’t even really stop anywhere, just looked around.

Of course, I don’t think this Ferris Wheel was active. It was a cold early April day, after all, not exactly the height of tourist season. Most of the attractions at Navy Pier were closed, and while I didn’t get close enough to the entrance to the Wheel to check, I didn’t see it turning at all while walking through the area…