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Life on Mars

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On any visit, it doesn’t take long to realize that Yellowstone National Park is a special place. With a concentration of wildlife and geothermal activity unseen anywhere else in the world, once-in-a-lifetime experiences occur daily when visiting the park. But with increased visitation, cell phone hot spots, and selfie stick-toting tourists cramming the boardwalks at places such as Old Faithful and Morning Glory Pool, it can be difficult to experience the “real” Yellowstone. Fortunately, the raw, remote, and sometimes savage beauty of Yellowstone is still there for those willing to put in the work required to see it. My friend and I found the real Yellowstone while on a 50 mile backpacking trip in October. We clambered over snowy mountain passes, hiked through rain, sleet, snow, mud, and brilliant sunshine, saw wolf and grizzly tracks, and soaked au naturel in hot springs almost 20 miles from the nearest road. Perhaps the most memorable moment of the trip, though, was watching and photographing the final sunrise of our journey from the shores of Shoshone Lake (the largest backcountry lake in the lower 48 states that can’t be reached by a road), deserted save for the two lakeside geysers that are steaming and sputtering in this photograph. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Copyright
Joseph Priola
Image Size
1920x1282 / 2.0MB
Keywords
Contained in galleries
American West
On any visit, it doesn’t take long to realize that Yellowstone National Park is a special place. With a concentration of wildlife and geothermal activity unseen anywhere else in the world, once-in-a-lifetime experiences occur daily when visiting the park. But with increased visitation, cell phone hot spots, and selfie stick-toting tourists cramming the boardwalks at places such as Old Faithful and Morning Glory Pool, it can be difficult to experience the “real” Yellowstone. Fortunately, the raw, remote, and sometimes savage beauty of Yellowstone is still there for those willing to put in the work required to see it. My friend and I found the real Yellowstone while on a 50 mile backpacking trip in October. We clambered over snowy mountain passes, hiked through rain, sleet, snow, mud, and brilliant sunshine, saw wolf and grizzly tracks, and soaked au naturel in hot springs almost 20 miles from the nearest road. Perhaps the most memorable moment of the trip, though, was watching and photographing the final sunrise of our journey from the shores of Shoshone Lake (the largest backcountry lake in the lower 48 states that can’t be reached by a road), deserted save for the two lakeside geysers that are steaming and sputtering in this photograph. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.