August 1st - Biscuit Basin & Mystic Falls

 On that Monday, we woke up to clouds and fog - neato!  Hebgen Lake looked so cool!

 But much of it burned off quickly, and by the time I'd headed out to the park, it was pretty sunny.  But still, a gorgeous day - one of my favorite kinds = with clouds!!!!  So today was Biscuit Basin Day - partly to see the basin and it's springs/geysers but also because it was the access point for a hike to some falls I wanted to photograph. 

I'm pretty sure this is the Sapphire Pool, but I sure wish now that I'd gone ahead and photographed the name plate for each of these geothermal phenomena!  'Cuz I sure as hell can't remember each of their names now!

 OK, here's another good example of my inability to mentally record!  Hey, it's just to the left of the Sapphire Pool, and that's all I can tell you.  If you enlarge the image, you can see all the tree parts that ended up in the pool.

 And so on with the hike (was about a 3-mile loop)!  Up to a plateau (only about 500' gain), which provides a great view of the basin/valley below - including Old Faithful (upper right)!

 Looking down on Biscuit Basin and the boardwalk.

 I got lucky and only had to wait at the overlook for 15 minutes or so to see Old Faithful do its thing from up above - not too bad, considering I had no idea when it would erupt, and it only goes off about every 90 minutes!

 Some really neat aerial views from up there - reminiscent of helicopter days...

 I didn't get quite as lucky with the lighting.  When Old Faithful really went off, it was completely in cloud shadow.  But here she blows anyways!

 Another "aerial."

 And...Mystic Falls.

 Little Firehole River (I think...!).

 Storm brewing.  I made it down just in time!  Well, sort of...

You can see the outcropping/edge I was on earlier (upper right).

 I LOVE these clouds!!!

 So here's the Sapphire Pool again, with different lighting! 

 See how wet the boardwalk is?  Yep, I got rained on!  But that's OK, it was worth it, and no camera gear was damaged in the process!

 OK, this is getting embarrassing!  These were two pools right at the beginning of the boardwalk, but I can't figure out what their names are and can't find them on the internet!  Oh well...they're pretty, aren't they - esp. with those lovely CLOUDY skies!

 And I finally got a wow, colorful sunset on the way back home!  See what clouds can provide?!  Yeah, you need sun too, but if ALL you have is sun, you'll never get this!!

 Sorry to be repetitive here, but I'm sure you've noticed that...hmm, once in awhile...?!  Guess you can tell when it's a favorite scene of mine, eh?!

And on that note, I will bid you good night and adieu for now (time to go to bed, but hopefully I'll get some more photos processed soon so this little blog can get moving again!)...