The Word of the Day Is Water!

Yellowstone is known for its thermal heat and water.  It's what makes Yellowstone special.  The thermal features are great, but the water is spectacular.  There's supposed to be tons of waterfalls in Yellowstone, and here are some of the best.  The truth is that with the abundance of snowfall this year and the late spring, there are many more waterfalls because there is so much snow melt this year.  For the first time, I wanted to capture some of those falls while they were huge!

This is Wraith Falls, a short hike from our daily jaunt into the Northern Tier of Yellowstone.

The next falls isn't even on the YNP map, but it's beautiful and when you pass by it, it's hard to resist.  I found out its name is Rustic Falls.

One of the big falls is Gibbons Falls from the Gibbons River.  This is a close-up view (this is in the caldera zone so the yellow obviously means there are minerals added to the river from the thermal action in the caldera).

Here is a further view.  It's really big this year.

This is one of the big falls, and again its larger this year because of the snow melt.  The Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. 

And the water in Yellowstone is not limited to waterfalls....there are lakes - beautiful lakes - like the large Yellowstone Lake

But it's very cold still, and since the lake is higher than a lot of the other part of the park, ice still lingers on the surface of the lake.

But even the small ponds can be beautiful with the reflection of the mountains that border Lamar Valley

And this is the view of Lamar Valley with the Absaroka Range which is the east end of the valley in the background.

But lakes, ponds, and waterfalls aren't the end of the water.  The Yellowstone River is the main river that runs through the park.  The odd thing for me is that it always seems to be going the wrong way....it's going west.  When you grow up east of the Continental Divide, it's hard to get used to seeing rivers flow west!

This is Walt's gorgeous shot of the river after a storm rolled through.  This is the river our RV backs up to so we hear the rushing river all night long.  Pretty idyllic in my view.

Finally a video cause these are not complete without the volume and the sound of rushing water!