Yellowstone National Park - Be Forewarned: Lots of Photos! :)

Despite this being past the prime tourist season, all campgrounds within the park were either closed or full, with no reservations available, so we stayed in a private campground just off the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park, in a small town appropriately called West Yellowstone.  We  spent two days driving park roads and stopping at various thermal features of the park: geysers, fumaroles, mud pots and more, yet we saw only a fraction of the special features in this park.  It's difficult to describe the varied and remarkable scenery and the appearance of the lands on which the major thermal features exist. On one hillside a park placard describes the earth in that spot reaching temperatures of 200 degrees Farenheit, literally boiling and killing the plant life on that location.  Now, a hot spring and some hot-pots dot that hill, and while the ground immediately surrounding those thermal features looks bleached and dead, the rest of the hillside is covered with grasses, plants, and a few trees, as well as hoof prints and animal scat that clearly indicates large animals visiting the sites. Visitor access is limited to boardwalks that lead visitors from one feature to the next, with signs dotted along the sides of the boardwalk reminding visitors of the potential dangers of leaving the boardwalk and coming too close to active thermal features, since the ground/crust surrounding them can be both thin and unstable.  With all the steam swirling around you as you walk, and the very ground near you bubbling, it's difficult to imagine such warnings are necessary.

The YouTube videos and photos linked below are all taken by me during our first two days at Yellowstone and provide a pretty good overview of the richness of experiences we've had here, from the magnificent to the mundane, but still beautiful.
Churning Cauldron

Firehole Falls

Heading to Work (None Too Enthusiastically)

Mama Elk &Youngster Entertaining the Tourists

Dragon's Mouth Spring

Fountain Paint Pots

Buffalo Living The Life!

Geyser & Hot Pool

The Other Animals May be Bigger, but I'm Cuter

We spent the next three days fishing the Madison and Firehole rivers in the park, one day with a guide, two days on our own.  Again, magnificent scenery, perfect weather, beautiful clear water.  Although we each did catch a few small rainbow trout, the greatest joy was being able to spend three days outside literally inhaling the surrounding beauty, and taking pleasure in a the relaxation of this time spent together. Since then, we've driven past beautiful mountain streams and rivers, all of them calling us to stop and spend some time there; unfortunately that will have to wait for another trip this way.  For now, we're headed further west in our little silver home, with such rich experiences stored in our memories from the last two weeks of travel.