Yellowstone, Wyoming, 22-23JUL2018

Vi kom in i Yellowstone, Wyoming, västerifrån, från Rexburg i Idaho via Island Park och den lilla staden West Yellowstone i Montana. Vi tog in på Old Faithful Inn, alldelels vid geysern med samma namn. Den har fått sitt namn eftersom den får utbrott tämligen regelbundet, med mellan en och en halv timme och två timmars mellanrum.

Lewis' Falls, Yellowstone

"Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Half of the world's geysers and hydrothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism"

Yellowstone:  8 983 km2
Södermanland: 8 388 km2

"The Yellowstone Caldera is the largest volcanic system in North America. It has been termed a "supervolcano" because the caldera was formed by exceptionally large explosive eruptions. The magma chamber that lies under Yellowstone is estimated to be a single connected chamber, about 60 km long, 29 km wide, and 5 to 12 km deep. The current caldera was created by a cataclysmic eruption that occurred 640,000 years ago, which released more than 1,000 km³ of ash, rock and pyroclastic materials. This eruption was more than 1,000 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. It produced a caldera nearly 1 km deep and 72 by 45 km in area and deposited the Lava Creek Tuff, a welded tuff geologic formation. The most violent known eruption, which occurred 2.1 million years ago, ejected 2,450 km³ of volcanic material. A smaller eruption ejected 280 km³ of material 1.3 million years ago.

Each of the three climactic eruptions released vast amounts of ash that blanketed much of central North America, falling many hundreds of miles away. The amount of ash and gases released into the atmosphere probably caused significant impacts to world weather patterns and led to the extinction of some species, primarily in North America."

Länk:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_National_Park

Old Faithful Inn

Old Faithful Inn

Grand Prismatic och Excelsior hot springs:

'

Norris Geyser:

Old Faithful:

Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone:

Jackson Lake i Grand Teton National Park: 

Björn.

Jackson:

Frukost i trädgården, Jackson, WY.

Smith Rock, Oregon, 20JUL2018

Smith Rock är ett litet bergmassiv i centrala Oregon, nära staden Terrebonne. Genom massivet rinner den lilla floden Crooked River. Området är känt framförallt bland bergsklättrare. Där finns flera vandringsleder av varierande svårighetsgrad. Vi gick först längs River Trail, en av de enklaste lederna, för att sedan fortsätta in på Misery Ridge Trail, som är den svåraste. Den går upp på baksidan av berget och kommer ner igen på samma sida som parkeringen. Fantastiskt vacker utsikt både på vägen upp och uppe på toppen, men även nere längs Crooked River. Det tog oss ungefär tre timmar att gå hela vandringsleden från parkeringen och tillbaka igen, ungefär sju kilometer. Den värsta biten var faktiskt avslutningen, backen tillbaka upp från floden till parkeringen. Vi hade två liter vatten med oss var, och de gick åt. Det var fint väder och 35 grader C.

"The geology of Smith Rocks is volcanic. It is made up of layers of recent basalt flows overlaying older Clarno ash and tuff formations. Approximately 30 million years ago, a large caldera was formed when overlying rock collapsed into an underground lava chamber. This created a huge amount of rock and ash debris that filled the caldera. That material solidified into rock, becoming Smith Rock tuff. Rhyolite flows intruded along faults in the Smith Rock Tuff. A half million years ago, basalt lava flows from nearby volcanoes covered the older tuff.

More recently, the Crooked River cut its way through the layers of rock to create today's geographic features. Smith Rock itself is a 3,200-foot (980 m)-high ridge (above sea level) with a sheer cliff-face overlooking a bend in the Crooked River (elev. 2600 ft), making the cliffs about 600 feet high."

"Monkey Face Area
The Monkey Face area has many routes, but is known for the iconic rock spire known as "Monkey Face," a distinctly primate looking face when viewed from certain angles. This iconic tower is 350 feet tall and boasts many routes. One of the more famous routes, Just Do It (5.14c), is still a testpiece for climbers to prove their prowess."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Rock_State_Park

Monkey Face

Vid basen av Monkey Face

Nästan i jämnhöjd med Monkey Face. Ser inte riktigt ut som ett ansikte från den här vinkeln.

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Mount Jefferson, 3 200 m.ö.h.

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Där nere vid bron började River Trail. Vi gick åt höger i bild.