Solar Eclipse and Yellowstone

August 19-27, 2017

We decided to view the total solar eclipse of 2017 near Rexburg, Idaho and go to Yellowstone National Park afterwards. We were not the only ones. Crossing the border two days before the eclipse took four hours! After 13 hours on the road, we decided to spend the night at the Chevron truck stop in Moses Lake. We were supposed to be in Coeur D'Alene. With the untravelled distance added to our second day, the drive to Beaver Creek, near Yellowstone, took 12 and a half hours.

We met a group of cars at the highway 87 intersection the following morning and then joined the continuous stream of cars on highway 20.

Traffic

It didn't look like we were going to make it to the path of totality so we started checking the GPS for back roads. We identified Mesa Falls Scenic Byway and were joined by a few other cars. A large number of people and two washrooms at Bear Gulch convinced us to stop and setup. Bear Gulch was just inside the path of totality so we saw about 40 seconds of total eclipse.

Solar Disk

Crescent Sun

Shades

Less

Corona

Diamond Ring

After the eclipse, Mesa Falls was a popular stop

Mesa Falls

Mesa Falls

Mesa Falls

Tuesday, we went to the Old Faithful and West Thumb areas of Yellowstone National Park. We should have done them in the reverse order but we didn't know that because we hadn't bought the Photographing Yellowstone book yet.

Steam

Steam

Green

Stay on Walk

Blue becomes Orange

Deep Blue

Sunset Lake

Sunset Lake

Orange

Ready

Old Faithful Inn

Steam

Deep

Sign

Blue Milk

West Thumb

Fish

Green

Bird

Deep Blue

On our way to our second day at Yellowstone, we stopped to take a photo of Earthquake Lake and the slide that caused it.

Earthquake Lake

Our first stop of the second day was to photograph Electric Peak and its reflection in Swan Lake. However, we were late and it was too windy for reflection photos. We did see the swans.

Swan Lake

Swans

Swan

Lunch was at Sheepeater Cliff but there were no marmots

Sheepeater Cliff

Next, we were off to Mammoth Springs which Jim expected to be boring. He was wrong.

Waterfall

Canyon

Angel Terrace

Angel Terrace

Angel Terrace

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Magpie

We spent the afternoon in the Tower-Roosevelt area and had supper at the Roosevelt Lodge before heading to the Lamar Valley in search of wildlife.

Bison

Bison

Horses

Coyote

Calcite Springs

Roosevelt Lodge

Roosevelt Lodge

Roosevelt Lodge

Pronghorn

Pronghorn

Fishermen

Bison

Bison

Bison

Bison

Bison

Bison

Bison

Bison

Grizzly

The Photographing Yellowstone book said we had to be at Artist Point by 9:45 to photograph the rainbow at the Lower Falls so Jessica cracked the whip to get us there.

Elk

Lower Falls

Lower Falls

Lower Falls with Rainbow

Lower Falls with Rainbow

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

We also went to the Sulphur Caldron and Mud Volcano areas but took more videos than pictures.

Mud Volcano Area

We climbed more than a hundred floors when we went back to the North Rim trails in the afternoon.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Lower Falls

Red Rock Trail

Osprey Nest

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Lower Falls

Lower Falls

We stopped briefly at the Norris Geyser Basin but again took more video than pictures.

Steamboat Geyser

And here are the videos.

We took a reflection photo in the beaver pond on Beaver Creek as we left for home the next morning.

Beaver Creek

Because we had three days for the return drive, we were able to stop a few times. Wallace, Idaho and Leavenworth, Washington were two of the stops.

Shoshone County Court House

Stein Pizza Bar

The Coeur D'Alene Hardware Co.

The Fainting Goat

Sierra Silver Mine Tour Bus

Wallace Printing Company

Leavenworth

Leavenworth

Leavenworth

Leavenworth

Leavenworth

And the border crossing took three minutes!

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