The Taelemans´ Blog

Lets fast forward a bit, I still have a ton of photos of Yellowstone, but things might get a bit boring if I continue with them, so let’s move on to…
Jackson, Wyoming, is a small town located in the Jackson Hole valley located south of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park. In the last couple of years, the town has gone from an actual cowboy town to an upper class ski resort, which results in a combination of great western stores and sushi bars.
For superb boots and an excellent service, visit Stone’s Mercentile. They have an enormous collection of boots and hats. I bought a pair of Nocona boots in their shop and they are just great. Proudly made in Texas, YIHA!

Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, Jackson,WY | Location on Map

The bar in the picture, called the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, was founded in the late 1890’s and tries to keep the cowboy history of Jackson alive with live western music and it’s authentic looks.

PS: Apparently, Jackson is home to the world’s largest ball of barbed wire… What famous game does this remind you of?

I’m a bit low on inspiration at the the moment, so I’m just gonna do a quick post with some more pictures from Yellowstone National Park and short descriptions.

The first picture shows a dead tree in Mammoth Hot Springs, killed by the calcium carbonate dissolved in the hot spring water. Mammoth is a large hill of travertine that has been created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate. Each day over 2 tons of calcium carbonate flows into Mammoth.

Dead Tree in Mammoth Hot Springs | Location on map

The second picture is taken at Grand Prismatic Spring, which is the largest hot spring in the United States. The vivid colors in the spring are the result of pigmented bacteria that grow around the edges of the mineral-rich water. The bacteria produce colors ranging from green to red.

Grand Prismatic Spring Sunset, Yellowstone N.P. | Location on map

When water falls as snow or rain on the Yellowstone Plateau , it slowly percolates through layers of porous rock. Sinking to a depth of nearly 3300 meters (10000 feet), it comes in contact with the hot rocks of the magma chamber under the surface. The water is cooked and becomes superheated (200°C or 400°F) while remaining in its liquid state due to the pressure pushing down on it from rocks and water.
Because the superheated water is less dense, it starts its journey back to the surface, where it forms a hot spring when pressure and heat energy which gets released slowly.

Yellowstone Hot Spring | Location on map

While in underground, some of this silica contained in the water deposits on the walls of the underground “plumbing system” forming a pressure-tight seal. This seal locks in the hot water and breaks when the pressure gets high enough, producing a geyser. The most famous geyser in Yellowstone is undoubtedly the Old Faithful and is one of the most predictable geysers, shooting boiling water to a height of 44 to 56 meter more or less every 90 minutes.

Old Faithful, Yellowstone N.P. | Location on map

Yellowstone National Park, named after the Yellowstone River which flows through the park, is the first National Park of the United States, founded in 1872. The park is known for its wildlife and geothermal features as seen on the pictures in this post. The geothermal features of the park are caused by the Yellowstone Caldera, which is the largest volcanic system in North America. It has been termed a “supervolcano” because the caldera was formed by exceptionally large explosive eruptions.

Chinese Spring, Yellowstone N.P. | Location on map

The current caldera was created by an enormous eruption that occurred 640.000 years ago. This eruption was about 1000 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The predicted effects of a Yellowstone eruption are the coverage of North America with ash followed by several years of freezing weather for the whole world. Combine this with the fact that Yellowstone Park has been on a regular eruption cycle of 600,000 years… well… invest in winter clothing and spam

Upper Basin Spring,Yellowstone N.P. | Location on map

Yellowstone is in my opinion one of the most beautiful places in the world. The landscape is truly amazing and its features like geysers, basins, hot springs,… are unique in the world, which I’ll try to show you in more posts about Yellowstone.