Nature

This nine mile hike with my daughter will be remembered as one of my best days this year. After a string of bad weather it was perfectly gorgeous. I was finally hiking up in the mountains, cradled by them on every side. Bliss!

The hike to Inspiration Point overlooking Jenny Lake in Grand Tetons National Park is a classic one and we had a gorgeous day to do it. We also enjoyed painting the scene, complete with a moth that hung out on my finger for hours… Ah, bliss, mountains at last.

Yellowstone is in the mountains, but is not particularly mountainous, because it comprises mostly a caldera. If I had once known that term, I had forgotten it, but my thirteen year old knew it from last year’s Runkle Geography course (see here). In the map below, you can see the ring where the caldera is … Read more

Above is the famous geyser, Old Faithful. Also you see here “mud holes,” the Opal Pool and the Grand Prismatic Spring. Near the bottom, there are a couple photos of how the landscape in general is percolating due to magma very close to the surface. Sometimes the steam makes visibility difficult! The yellow, orange and … Read more