A Magical Morning at Mammoth Hot Springs - Spring Snow! 5-21-21

Oh wow!  Another long break!  But this one was due to technical difficulty...  My Lightroom stopped working on my new(ish) computer which is a real bummer.  But finally - after a lot of handwringing and trying to fix things - I realized that I could use Camera Raw and Photoshop to edit the photos without Lightroom!

It worked thank goodness. 

So!  Without further ado, a video!

Oh, wait.  Lets get caught up first by clicking the links below:

Previously in the Grand Tetons/Yellowstone series:

Jackson Hole, Grand Tetons Day 1, Jenny Lake Campground, Elk Herd

Beautiful Jenny Lake, Foxes and Bears

Lovely Vistas full of Bison and Horses

Mormon Row, Pronghorn Antelope, and Ravens

Wildlife Art, Yellow-bellied Marmot, Colter Bay, and Ground Squirrels

Colter Bay to South Yellowstone

Black Sand Basin and Bison

More Bison, Old Faithful, Biscuit Basin, and Beginning of Artemisia Trail Hike

Hike to Morning Glory Pool! Plus Bison with Red Dogs, Elk, and Coyotes

Grizzly and Wolf Center in West Yellowstone

Fountain Paint Pots and Grand Prismatic Spring

Mama Elk for the Win! Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Surrounds

It's Elk! It's Birds!  It's Mammoth Hot Springs Campground! 

 As you could see in the video, I was so pleasantly surprised when I woke up in Mammoth Hot Springs.  Although I was completely confused because my windows looked like they were broken!  Even after I put my glasses on.  So I rolled down my driver's window and was shocked to find that it was snow and ice on my car.  lol 

After I recovered, I got up and went about getting dressed, etc.  When I returned from the warm, cozy bathroom, I snapped a couple of pictures.

I'm not going to lie...  I had some trouble with my picture taking with the cloudy sky.  Some of these photos are going to be underexposed and some looked like monochrome!  So I turned a couple into monochrome deliberately.  C'est la vie!  It's the price of shooting full manual when I'm just a step above a beginner.  haha 

I got everything organized and couldn't wait to get on the road.  My goal for the day was to head to Lamar Valley and I wasn't up as early as I had hoped.  So I got on the road, of course stopping for many photo opportunities along the way.  

So many that I had to split them up into three posts with this being the first one. 

Mammoth Hot Springs looked so wonderful in it's fresh blanket of snow.  

I slowly drove around town to see the sites before doing the auto tour on Mammoth Hot Springs (MHS). I loved the buildings and was excited to photograph them.  I especially love taking photos of churches that are photogenic or older.  The Mammoth Chapel definitely fit the bill. 

The church is quite nice, but I really liked the post office!  It looks a bit different than the other buildings which look more like army buildings - which is because the other buildings were part of Fort Yellowstone.

Just behind the post office is the Mail Carrier's Cabin.  It's a log cabin built in the late 1800's and still standing today.  The two-room structure was used by park service staff until approximately 2002.  You can see an addition to the back which is brick.  There is another later addition on the back right side as well which brought the square foot total to 512. 

So here we'll take a brief pause as I drove around and out of town on Grand Loop Road towards Slough Creek, stopping to see much wildlife on the way.  

Let me interject - especially with reflection as the time has passed and editing these photos again - that Yellowstone has so much beauty.  Some of it is understated but it's still there.  I took pictures of so many landscapes and just...objects.  Like snow on trees and bushes. Rocks. I just found them so beautiful. Not to mention the sky, the mist over the mountains, and the hillsides themselves. 

Yes, I have a lot of photos of those things along with more of the "usual" landscapes.  So I've divided my photos into three categories:  Mammoth Hot Springs, Landscapes, etc., and wildlife. 

Since I started the day in MHS, I started the series of posts with MHS. Next post will be all the amazing landscapes and objects.  And the last, but not least will be the wildlife that graced me with their presence. 

Of course you will see a lot of beauty in MHS as well...especially on the terrace of the actual hot springs. Which we will get to now. 😊

This next photo is later in the day when I drove back through MHS to visit the auto tour and then head back to California.  The snow had largely melted from the boardwalks this time around. And there were more people out and about. 

I headed onto the auto tour and was captured by the views of the upper terrace.  I love this photo with the town of Mammoth Hot Springs in the distance!

Like much of Yellowstone, MHS has it's share of trees some of which are dead and in varying degrees of decay which makes them ultra photogenic in my eyes.  Don't get me wrong...I love living trees too!

Stay tuned for tons of trees.

At a guess, I think this next photo might be Canary Springs due to the color. 

The feature called Orange Spring Mound really lives up to its name!

And there was more orange on display on this next terrace. And cool trees of course.

Next slide is Elephant Back Terrace.  Named so for obvious reasons. 

I just loved the Angel Terrace.  Such cool formations, steam, and dead trees!  Awesome!

It was a wonderful drive with so many stunning views.  10/10 would recommend. 

Well, that's it for today!  Glad to be back and sharing my adventures...even if they are 5 years old! 😀

I'll leave you with a short video of snow falling on the Mammoth Chapel.  It was so lovely!

xoxo

Nikon D600 with 28-300 mm Nikkor lens

Nikon D7200 with 150-600 Sigma Contemporary lens

Videos by Pixel 3