Colors, Feelings, and Yellowstone
Reminiscing about two days in Yellowstone full of color.
I'm in my office, staring out the window, watching the snow gently fall. I lovingly refer to this type of snow as snowglobe snow. It's my favorite type of snow, and it helps me embrace that winter is here.
Sure, I'm embracing winter, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Some photographers welcome this time of year and capture the beauty of snow, ice, and cold. I find myself less inspired and want to hibernate right along with the bears. Winter is easily my least favorite season. There is such a lack of color and life when it's not snowing. I see winter as a time of bitterness, gloom, and desolation.
To keep myself motivated to photograph the winter world, I'm throwing it back to a more colorful location. In the summer of 2023, Adam and I traveled to Yellowstone for the first (and definitely NOT last) time. Yellowstone is a vast national park, and in the two short days we visited, Yellowstone quickly found a place in my heart. I can't wait to go again (potentially) in the summer of 2024!
The colors of Yellowstone
Red is the color of passion and energy, and Yellowstone has so much energy and excitement. Though I did not photograph much red in the park, this West Thumb Geyser Basin area showed diverse colors. As temperatures lower around the edges of the spring, where you see more of a red-brown color, a greater diversity of microbes can survive.
I saw the color orange the most in the park, and I’m assuming that’s due to the bacteria found in the springs and geysers.
The color orange circles Grand Prismatic Spring, my favorite location in Yellowstone.
The color orange represents energy, excitement, and enthusiasm. I find it difficult to NOT feel energetic, excited, and enthusiastic in Yellowstone because it is such a beautiful location. It is undoubtedly being loved to death by tourists, but I can see why so many people visit the park.
Typically, the yellow color is found in nature through cheery, happy flowers. In Yellowstone, yellow is found all over the place.
At East Round Spring, the color yellow is due to cyanobacteria called Synechococcus. The temperature of this yellow band is around 165 degrees. When the sunlight hits the spring, it’s so intense that the bacteria produce a pigment that acts as a sunscreen. Carotenoids, also found in carrots, are orange and thus cause the usually green Synechococcus bacteria to change into a more jaundiced shade. Nature is so fascinating!
Why is Yellowstone named as such? The name is attributed to American Indians who lived in the area. They literally named the park because of its yellow sandstone along the Yellowstone River.
Green, the color of nature, harmony, and life, colors the grass around Old Faithful.
It surprised me to see that the color of the Yellowstone River was green.
The stripe of green at the top of the falls is due to a “crack” in the edge of the rock where the water falls over the edge. The green coloring is where the water is deeper than the rest of the falls; the water takes longer to aerate and turn white like the surrounding water.
The color blue represents calmness, serenity, and peace.
I would like to SUP board on Yellowstone Lake someday. The water conditions were like glass the day we were there. I can’t imagine paddling the entire lake, but a few hours on the water would be amazing.
Sadly, I only saw purple once in the park, in these little wildflowers, at Turquoise Pool. Does that make the color more exotic and luxurious?
However, I did see a bonus rainbow at the lower falls of Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Artist Point was busy for an early morning, but being able to capture this beaut made this location my second favorite spot in the park.
How does color inspire your world?
Cheers.
It's been about 20 years since I was in Yellowstone. It was one of my first trips to the US as a kid and I remember how awesome it was. I would love to go back as an adult and immerse into it more than I did as a kid, maybe tacking on the Tetons (which I never got to) to the trip as well. I think because of its place in my childhood, Yellowstone is, to me, the ultimate American national park, the first one that comes to mind, ahead of Grand Canyon, Glacier, Yosemite, Acadia, Everglades, Zion, Mt Rainier, Denali, etc. Glad you too were captivated by the park!
Fascinating insights into nature! I love 'Yellowstone Lake from Fishing Bridge Visitor Center' and how the waves recede into the distance!