Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #33: Nature

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Patti gave us a great theme for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #33 – Nature. I love nature and our frequent travel allows me to take many photos of nature.

In this post, I feature photos taken from two trips representing two ends of temperature in nature.

My brother John and his wife Peggy visited us from Hong Kong. We went on a bus tour to Yellowstone. Yellowstone National Park preserves the most extraordinary collection of hot springs, geysers, mud pots, fumaroles, and travertine terraces on Earth. More than 10,000 hydrothermal features are found here, of which more than 500 are geysers.

Types of Hydrothermal Features

There are five types of hydrothermal features readily visible in Yellowstone:

  1. Geysers: Hot springs with constrictions in their plumbing, which causes them to periodically erupt to release the pressure that builds up.
  2. Hot Springs: Pools of geothermally heated water.
  3. Mudpots: Hot springs that are acidic enough to dissolve the surrounding rock. Typically, also lack water in their systems.
  4. Travertine Terraces: Hot springs that rise up through limestone, dissolve the calcium carbonate, and deposit the calcite that makes the travertine terraces.
  5. Fumaroles: also known as steam vents. These hot features lack water in their system, and instead constantly release steam.

Resource: https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/hydrothermal-features.htm

 

Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone,U.S.1

Old Faithful Geyser named for its frequent and somewhat predictable eruptions which number more than a million since Yellowstone became the world’s first national park in 1872.

Hot Springs, Yellowstone, U.S.

Abyss Pool Hot Spring

Mudpot, Yellowstone, U.S.

Mudpots

Mudpots, Yellowstone, U.S.2

Mudpots

Terraces, Yellowstone, U.S.1

Travertine terraces

Fumaroles (Steam Vents,, Yellowstone, U.S.4

Fumaroles – Steam Vents

We had been to Anchorage, Alaska on two trips. The first time we went in late September, one week after the summer season and missed the train going to Denali National Park. It was the reason we took our second trip last year and secured a tour to Denali before the trip.

We did a lot of sightseeing during our first trip. We took the Glacier Cruise departing from Whittier and explored the western side of Prince William Sound. We went on a rafting trip down a river and had a helicopter ride up to Harriman Glacier. My husband has a helicopter license. The pilot jokingly said if Lynton had the license with him, he would let him fly the helicopter. We got out after the helicopter landed and had a gorgeous view of the glacier, the valley and Prince William Sound.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #33 – Nature

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