An Unlikely Look at Yellowstone's Geysers (PHOTOS)

By: By Camille Mann

Published: October 30,2013

 

 

 

 

 

13 / 20

A close-up photo of one of Yellowstone National Park's thermal features. Yellowstone holds the Earth's most diverse collection of geysers, hot springs, mudpots and fumaroles, according to the National Park Service. (Dave Reichert)

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When you think of Yellowstone National Park, abstract art isn’t typically what comes to mind. But that’s exactly what struck photographer Dave Reichert when he encountered the park’s geothermal pools.
“In many of Yellowstone’s thermal features, the combination and intensity of colors is completely unexpected,” Reichert explained to Weather.com. “I realized that I was looking at something that more closely resembled abstract expressionist painting than colonies of microorganisms on a stream bed.”
Reichert wasn’t quite sure what awaited him when he visited Yellowstone National Park with his daughter. He just hoped to see some of the park’s wolves and a couple of its other unique features. But what he experienced on arrival shocked him — in a good way.
“It was so much more than I expected,” he explained. “We saw bison, elk, deer, pronghorns, mountain goats, moose, black bears, grizzlies, coyotes, foxes — up close and personal — and a fleeting glimpse of two wolves a few hundred yards away.”
Just as the wildlife at Yellowstone surprised him, the geology equally amazed. “‘Colorful’ as an adjective falls short when I try to describe the thermal pools and springs at Yellowstone. I’ve used the word ‘lurid’ before,” Reichert said.
Yellowstone National Park contains more than 50 percent of the world’s geysers. It also holds the Earth’s most diverse collection of geysers, hot springs, mudpots and fumaroles (steam vents), according to the National Park Service.
To capture the images featured above, Reichert picked a spot that looked interesting, then found a series of walkways that crisscrossed the thermal basins. “Early morning was the best time, before the walkways became busy, while the sun was still low and textures were emphasized and glare off the surface of the water was minimized,” he explained.
Reichert titled his photo series “Stinking Holes in the Ground” due to the rotten egg smell that mudpots emit. The smell comes from hydrogen sulfide, which rises from the Earth and that provides an energy source for some microorganisms. “You could almost always smell the next thermal feature before you saw the parking lot that accessed it,” Reichert said. “The smell was pretty nasty, but the rest of the experience made the odor trivial.”
To see more of Reichert’s work visit his website.