Season's end in Yellowstone

My season ended Sept 30.  It was a cool but clear day, no winds, great for traveling.  Here is a small gallery of photos from the park.  In September when the mornings are down to freezing, we get wonderful steam and mist along the rivers so I have included a few of those.   My goal for this winter is to become more profficient with editing so several of these images will be ones I work on.  But for
now, its a little sampler of scenes from the end of the season.  I realize I like moody, foggy\misty scenes.

Gibbon River

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Firehole River

A little fall color in the foliage and, to the left, Firehole Falls

Along the Gibbon River

Gibbon Falls

This, and the next two are of Great Fountain Geyser.  While it is one of my favorite geysers, it is also magnificient in the evening when it is not erupting.

                                                     

                                                   Same photo as the color view to the left, but converted to B&W

Elk calf with muddy legs, dawn

By fall, the amount of water in the mud pots has receded.  I love photographing the bubbling mud, but dry it looks like a moonscape

Outside the park, this is Mesa Falls in Idaho.  Friend, fellow driver, Jackie Maxwell and I drove down to try some slow motion waterfall photos using our new neutral density filters.

This was a dry and windy summer in Yellowstone, with more fire activity than the park has seen since 1988.  Still, it was a fraction of what happened that year.  This was the Maple Fire as seen from the West Entrance Road.  Biggest of the fires this summer, the interior and northern and eastern areas were allowed to burn.  Firefighters created breaks and closely monitored activity along the south flank to prevent it from crossing the West Entrance Road and the western edge to protect the community of West Yellowstone.

Roots of tree killed when hot waters from geothermal activity flooded it.