By the time we made it to Grand Canyon of Yellowstone River the day was nearing its retirement age. It was past 5 p.m. then and you can imagine how much one can do with such a small window of remaining light. All we were able to do was to play "real tourists" - walk to a viewing platform and click-click some photos there. Again - better than nothing and absolutely worth every second of the late afternoon light.
This was the initial view of the canyon - not far from here would be the platform offering the views of the Lower Falls. However, "not far" in photospeak can mean either 5 minutes or several hours - depending what's in front of the lens.
And so it happened that while my companions were already aiming their lenses at the wild waters of Lower Falls, I was still hobbling along the trail between the parking lot and the viewing platform. The scenery was surreal and overwhelming.
What human eyes and human brain combine into a 3D image is certainly much different from the 2D photo in one's camera. It was challenging to capture the features of this rugged canyon in something better than a visual pancake. I took my time trying out different F-stops, avoiding branches, figuring out some sort of composition. Success still lies somewhere in future, but I had fun.
And! Thank you the park rangers for installing all those safety barriers along the trail. Without you, the world might have been deprived of one promising photographer.
.
There is no way that faced with the beauty of this canyon one could avoid asking questions. What makes this place so colourful?
Like so many other features here in Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon owes its existence to the volcanic activity. After the last eruption some 600 000 years ago, one of the lava flows covered the area of today's Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
The melted insides of the Earth spewed onto the surface crystallizing into hard rocks - in this case rhyolite (in other places obsidian). Rhyolite is a rock chemically equal to granite that crystallizes deep underneath the surface but because it is deep, it cools off slowly and its physical properties are therefore different.
Both, rhyolite and granite can be found in many other places on Earth but here, in Yellowstone, the rocks of the former lava flow had been subjected to additional force. Hot magma in this park is close to surface and this lava flow had been undermined by areas of hot steam and gases.
The forming rocks had been hydrothermally altered, slowly releasing and revealing the colourful minerals from within.
The altered rocks were eventually subjected to other never ceasing forces of Nature: earthquakes, glacier movements with all their heavy grinding and excavations, seasonal changes and floods and always present wind.
Yellowstone River found its way through and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was born.
Once again, one thousand years is just a moment in Earth's time, so it might be safe to say that this canyon is pretty young - someone figured out that it has been there, in its present shape (+/-) for 10, 000 years, since the departure of the last Ice Age.
This was the initial view of the canyon - not far from here would be the platform offering the views of the Lower Falls. However, "not far" in photospeak can mean either 5 minutes or several hours - depending what's in front of the lens.
And so it happened that while my companions were already aiming their lenses at the wild waters of Lower Falls, I was still hobbling along the trail between the parking lot and the viewing platform. The scenery was surreal and overwhelming.
What human eyes and human brain combine into a 3D image is certainly much different from the 2D photo in one's camera. It was challenging to capture the features of this rugged canyon in something better than a visual pancake. I took my time trying out different F-stops, avoiding branches, figuring out some sort of composition. Success still lies somewhere in future, but I had fun.
And! Thank you the park rangers for installing all those safety barriers along the trail. Without you, the world might have been deprived of one promising photographer.
.
 |
Yellow colour in these rocks of the Canyon
is not caused by sulphur but by
iron compounds. The iron oxides can be
found in Nature or they can be man-made.
Their colours range from red-yellow-black.
|
Like so many other features here in Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon owes its existence to the volcanic activity. After the last eruption some 600 000 years ago, one of the lava flows covered the area of today's Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
The melted insides of the Earth spewed onto the surface crystallizing into hard rocks - in this case rhyolite (in other places obsidian). Rhyolite is a rock chemically equal to granite that crystallizes deep underneath the surface but because it is deep, it cools off slowly and its physical properties are therefore different.
Both, rhyolite and granite can be found in many other places on Earth but here, in Yellowstone, the rocks of the former lava flow had been subjected to additional force. Hot magma in this park is close to surface and this lava flow had been undermined by areas of hot steam and gases.
The forming rocks had been hydrothermally altered, slowly releasing and revealing the colourful minerals from within.
The altered rocks were eventually subjected to other never ceasing forces of Nature: earthquakes, glacier movements with all their heavy grinding and excavations, seasonal changes and floods and always present wind.
Yellowstone River found its way through and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was born.
Once again, one thousand years is just a moment in Earth's time, so it might be safe to say that this canyon is pretty young - someone figured out that it has been there, in its present shape (+/-) for 10, 000 years, since the departure of the last Ice Age.
Lower Falls of Yellowstone River.
The Day 1 of our Yellowstone travels came to its end - it was time to return to our base in West Yellowstone.
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