Astonishing Yellowstone National Park

Thanks a million Tamari!!!
When we started planning our travels, we were on the verge of skipping Yellowstone and Grand Teton, to avoid the long drives involved. A major factor in our decision not to skip these parks was a suggestion by Tamari that we shouldn’t, and we are oh so thankful for this advice!
Tonight is our fourth night at Yellowstone, and we could easily spend an additional week in this marvelous park, the first national park to be established, whose size is about half the size of the state of Israel.
I, in my ignorance, expected mostly a big bunch of geysers and a lot of wildlife roaming relatively dry terrain. These, by themselves, are definitely worth the visit, but Yellowstone has so much more to offer, that it’s probably the most pleasantly surprising destination we have visited this summer. Good thing we didn’t bother to read every detail about every park in advance ;-)
The scenery is very diverse, containing lakes, beautiful rivers, magnificent waterfalls, heavily forested areas, snow-capped mountains and lush green meadows. Each of our four days in the park was wonderful, and it seems as if we couldn’t ask for a better visit. I should mention that my parents have joined us, and having a couple folks for whom Yellowstone was the first National Park to visit made the atmosphere even merrier.

We had a magnificent hike in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, concluding with the awe-inspiring Lower Falls. We visited several geyser basins, enjoying the surreal feeling of the earth bubbling everywhere around you. We spotted a lot of wild life, including a Grizzly Bear and a Black Bear. We waded in the “Boiling River” (north of Mammoth Hot Springs), where freezing river waters mix with very hot sulfurous spring water - warmly recommended (literally...). We attended the world-famous periodic eruption of Old Faithful; and although you’re surrounded by hundreds of other tourists, this is something not to be skipped.

But above all stands the pure beauty we’ve experienced today. The kind of things you get to see only once in a long while, intensified by the fact that very few visitors get to share this unique opportunity. There are many well-marked and heavily visited board-walks in Yellowstone, one of which traverses the “Midway Geyser Basin”, a few miles north of Old Faithful. The main attraction in the area is a large round pool, named “Grand Prismatic Spring” that gets its name by virtue of exposing a terrific blend pf colors. However, from the ground (e.g. the aforementioned board-walk) you only get a very limited view of the pool and its colors. Thanks to a kind ranger at the Visitor Center, we knew better. A nearby trail allows you to climb a steep hill. Few things would pay off as much as the somewhat-strenuous uphill and words can’t effectively convey how astonishing the view from above is. Gazing from the top of the hill, you get a picture so beautiful that it almost seems like a Photoshop fake. The middle of the pool is blue, surrounded by a green strip (thanks to bacteria in the waters), in turn surrounded by a yellow strip (sulfur), in turn surrounded by a brownish-reddish strip with sun-like arms (possibly a result of iron deposits). The whole pool is covered by hazy vapors, surrounded by a beautiful valley and majestic mountains and (today...) capped by clear blue sky. We all spent at least an hour on that hill, admiring the beauty that only nature can produce. See photos below.

Bottom line - traveling is great ;-) If you get a chance, visit Yellowstone!
Giora