For the first time in over 50 years, mankind is on its way to the moon.

At just after 6:35PM the Artemis II mission of the Space Launch System lifted off from launchpad 39B on Cape Canaveral. After a nearly flawless countdown that began with fueling early this morning, the rocket launched just 11 minutes after the initial planned time of 6:24PM.

I was on the scene for the entire day on and around the Max Brewer Bridge in Titusville. I began my morning early leaving my campsite at just after 5AM. This put me in Titusville a little after six, and parking was already filled up in the most popular spots. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to go very far at this early hour and had plenty of time to get set up to take photos of the rocket with the sun rising behind it on what would become a spectacular day.

I spent my day wandering around Titusville and Sand Point Park where I had parked. I was the first person to park there in the early morning hours, but by noon the place was absolutely roaring with people, and by 3PM it was a certified zoo. It was a fun zoo, though, and between reading and wandering around I met many people. Several were from out of the country and, through sheer luck, had happened to be visiting the area during the launch. They all shared my enthusiasm and were full of questions about the launch which I was more than happy to answer. A few even asked me for directions- which with some help from Google I also assisted with.

I found my spot on the Max Brewer Bridge fairly early by my standards, about 4 hours before launch, but there had been people there since sunrise. By the time 6PM rolled around the bridge was chock full of people all anxiously awaiting the launch.

I had my trusty Bearcat scanner tuned into the NASA broadcast to keep us all up to date on the latest, and our patience for the day was rewarded at 6:35PM when the massive rocket roared to life.

As the rocket roared overhead, we first heard nothing- we were 10.5 miles away of course- but soon the ground began to shake and after 30 seconds the full blast of the rocket arrived. The sound shook you to your bones, and the flames appeared like the sun bright enough to leave temporary spots in your vision.

The crew, comprised of Commander Reid Wiseman (NASA), Pilot Victor Glover (NASA), Mission Specialist Christina Hammock Koch (NASA), and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency) will spend a couple days in Earth orbit checking out the many systems of their Orion capsule. Then, they will perform an engine burn to send them on a trajectory around the moon. On this mission, the astronauts will not be orbiting the moon, but will just do a “slingshot” fly-by around 4,000 miles away. They will become the first humans since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 to see the “dark side” of the moon partially illuminated on their trip around.

After launch, the eastward trajectory meant we weren’t able to see the booster separation from our location as the smoke plume sat between us and the rocket. Of course, I couldn’t resist getting a selfie with the rocket plume.

This certainly won’t be a day I’ll forget for a very, very long time.

North Cascades has been very high on my list of places I want to visit for a long time. This park is nestled deep in the heart of Washington near the Canadian border. Accessing the park itself is somewhat difficult as no major highways go through it. The only way to truly visit the park is to hike into it.

I finally got the chance to visit following a work trip to Portland, Oregon this past September. I spent two days in North Cascades and two days at Mt. Rainier which I’ll be writing about for the next couple of weeks.

The first day in the North Cascades I never actually entered the park. Due to some strange boundaries, the magnificent Highway 20 that runs through this area remains solely in the Ross Lake Recreational Area despite having parts of the National Park on both the north and south side of the road just a few miles away in each direction. The small town of Newhalem, Washington sits tucked here between the boundaries and this is where you get your first taste of what the area has to offer.

After a quick trip to the visitor center and a stop at the Newhalem Campground to set up my tent, I was on my way to see what I could see. The drive from Portland on this first day left me with just a few hours of daylight, but I had planned to make the best of it. I had lucked into absolutely beautiful weather which made for some very enjoyable time outside. My first top was Ladder Creek Falls.

Ladder Creek Falls is located a very, very short hike from the town of Newhalem. You actually park in town to make the short hike up to it. This spectacular waterfall is the definition of a true slot canyon. Here, Ladder Creek has carved its way into the surrounding rock forming a very deep, very narrow canyon. There is a well organized trail and many sets of stairs to see the whole thing. Viewing can be difficult at times due to the narrowness of the canyon and being stuck on the stairs, but you can get some solid views. The lower falls in particular offer up some great photos- especially if you aren’t scared to set your tripod on the other side of the railing protecting you from a very unpleasant 60-70 foot fall.

Further up, many fallen trees make viewing the upper portion of the falls a bit more difficult, but it is still beautiful.

Ladder Creek empties in to the Skagit River almost immediately below the falls. This river is the embodiment of a Pacific Northwest inland river. The river is very popular for salmon fishers. In fact, I saw a few people out fishing during my days there. The deep blue color of the river is due to the many dissolved minerals from the high mountains around, and the river is heavily fed by snowmelt through the year which contributes to this color. There are many different pull offs you can stop at to get great views of the river.

As you continue north along Highway 20 you begin to quickly climb into the cascades themselves. The views become increasingly more spectacular, although there aren’t any big overlooks along this section of highway.

As you drive north from Newhalem the next big spot you’ll make it to is Diablo Lake. This lake is managed by the Ross Lake Recreational Area, with Ross Lake lying just northeast and draining into Diablo Lake. You’ll get a nice view of the 339ft tall Diablo Dam on your way in, although I did not stop to take any photos. This dam provides quite a bit of power to the city of Seattle, which is evident by the many high transmission power lines you’ll see on your drive.

The most striking thing about Diablo Lake is its striking blue color. This shouldn’t come as a surprise given the river that feeds it, but the lake itself is a very deep blue/green color. Compared to the drab lakes found on the east coast, this relatively high elevation lake is absolutely stunning. It was here that I would run out of daylight. The Diablo Lake overlook is a wonderful place for a sunset, and as luck would have it I would be treated to a beautiful one. The sun was setting as low as it can from this location in the gap between two ridges, which made for some great photography conditions.

I’ve seen hundreds, if not a thousand or more, sunsets throughout my lifetime and every one of them is different and special. Watching the sun disappear over the deep blue of the lake was very serene and peaceful, helped by the fact that in late September there aren’t many people around.

As I returned back to my campsite for the night I caught some alpenglow lighting up the highest peaks to the northeast of the lake.

If you have time, highway 20 would eventually take you past Ross Lake and up into these high peaks, but I did not quite have time for that on this journey. I had to get back to my campsite to get some rest. A long, grueling, beautiful day lie ahead of me….

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

We had done it, we had summited the 12,209ft Mt. Rearguard and now a daunting task lay ahead of us: getting back down. If you read my last installment, I don’t have to tell you that going up absolutely kicked my butt. The elevation, coupled with the sun exposure and relative lack of sleep the past few days had worn me thin. However, we still had a 5 mile trip back down to our truck before we could really relax. Anyone who has done much hiking knows that going down can be just as grueling as going up. In fact, anyone with questionable knees probably prefers going up. In our case, both were difficult.

Our “trail” back down from the summit required boulder hopping once again. Going down can be more dangerous than going up, because it is much easier for your legs to get ahead of you, especially when you are tired.

Some of the boulders we were jumping between were the size of cars, and you had to carefully pick your way through. It is exhilarating hiking, but boy does it get frustrating after the first mile or so.

Luckily for me, and very unluckily for him, my buddy’s knees aren’t in the greatest of shape which meant we made several stops on the way down. To be honest, we stopped more on the way down than on the way up. I think if we had stopped on the way up more I may not have made it, but I took full opportunity to get some spectacular photos of the area on the return. The stark ruggedness has a beauty all its own.

I took a short scramble out on a ledge to capture a panorama of the steep climb we had made from below. The large moon lake lay directly below, with part of Shelf Lake, our overnight camping spot, lies beneath it. A couple thousand feet down and 2 miles left from there lie our truck- still a long haul to go.

It is very, very hard to get across just how steep some of these slopes you wind up climbing are. While they don’t require rope, it might honestly be easier if they did. The entire 3-4 mile drop from the top of Mt. Rearguard back to the trail was steep, rocky grades. I believe the photo below does the best job of capturing these extremely steep slopes of any that I took.

You may have wondered over the past few installments why they are called the “Beartooth Mountains”. While the jagged, saw type tops certainly resemble teeth, there is one peak that stands out and gives these mountains their names. The Beartooth itself is visible from many places around the region, but perhaps nowhere better than around Mt. Rearguard. From our vantage point on the ridgeline the Bear’s Tooth rises high above the near mountains and is framed by the steep valley. This peak is the next one over once you leave the northwest side of Mt. Rearguard itself.

As we reached near the bottom we took a slightly different route down than we did up. This extra distance allowed our knees some rest from the constant pounding of the steep downhill and offered us a slightly less steep descent in general. This route took us through a scene that looks like it came straight out of a Windows background, assuming that background had been run over by a glacier about 10,000 years ago.

After a couple of hours of knee and foot beating downhill, we finally reached our packs. After reattaching our day packs we now had…. even more downhill. From this point on I took very, very few photographs of the trip back down. Every bone and muscle in my body hurt, and I could feel my blood sugar starting to drop down. The steep ascent we had made the day before now seemed even steeper on the way back down. I did take one more photograph during one of our last stops. This is the final photo from my camera, taken probably around a half mile above the truck looking down towards our final destination.

As the truck itself came into view, I dropped my pack and collapsed on the tailgate. We had made it. A week full of geysers, canyons, lakes, stars, and 12,000 foot peaks was behind me. The adventure of a lifetime was over.

“Go west, young man”. Boy am I glad I did.

Check out Tyler’s other articles in this series

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• White Mountain
• Bunsen Peak
• Norris Geyser Basin
• Star light, star bright
• A ‘Faithful’ meeting
• Shattering Earth
• Isn’t She Grand?
• Canyons of Time
• Cranes and Bison and Bears, oh my!
• Leaving Yellowstone
• The Beartooth Highway
• The First Climb
• To 12,000ft and Beyond

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

I can’t say I slept great at 10,100ft elevation near Shelf Lake, but I didn’t sleep terribly. At any rate, when I woke up well before the sun on the morning of July 28 I knew I had the hardest hike of my life ahead of me.

While I spend as much time as possible at higher elevations here on the west coast, the highest that can still possibly put me is 6,000ft. I was about to double that. All week we had slowly been making our way higher and higher through Yellowstone and eventually the Beartooths, but our true goal lay ahead. Neither my buddy nor myself had ever summited a 12,000ft peak on foot. I have been to the top of Pike’s Peak at 14,000ft but only by car. The highest I had personally ever hiked was a touch over 10,000 and certainly nothing as difficult as what lie in store. We packed up and headed backwards and downwards along the trail just as the sun began to hit the ridge to our west.

You never know quite what you are going to get with weather at these elevations, but luckily for us it was a bluebird day after the brief early morning low clouds and a very brief bout of mist. Temperatures were around freezing at daybreak but would quickly climb into the 40s and eventually 50s along our route. We made our way downhill about a 1-1.5 miles where we stashed our overnight packs and unclipped our day packs that would take us to the summit of Mt. Rearguard. We left the trail, and that was the last we would see of any organized route for the rest of the trip.

To put it very lightly, there are no easy ways to reach Mt. Rearguard. We had opted for the shortest way, but shorter usually means steeper. Having now “been there, done that” I can confirm it is a very steep approach. We were very rarely able to go straight up the hill, but instead had to zig zag our way up the steep, rock-laden slopes. Our climb took us up very quickly accomplishing our first 1,000ft gain in a little over a mile. I didn’t take a ton of photos on the way up as I was mostly concerned with not dying, but the views were certainly breathtaking.

When we finally reached the top of the first rise it put us out about 11,400ft above sea level and I was really starting to feel the elevation. From here, we could see the rest of our root. You may be thinking to yourself ‘that doesn’t look too bad’. This thought briefly went through my mind, but now it was back to a slog back downhill to the saddle below.

You may notice the ridiculous number of rocks in our way. This landscape was carved out exclusively by glaciers and as they melted they left behind a seemingly infinite number of boulders. Our path zig zagged between these boulders ranging from the size of your fist to the size of a VW bug as we approached the final summit bid. From here, you have about 1,000 vertical feet to climb in right around 1 mile or a bit less depending how you choose to go. We were lazy, stupid, or a mix of both and after studying our topographic maps decided it would be just as easy to go straight up. The beautiful Moon Lake that we had failed to reach the day prior lay out beneath us reflecting the snow and small glaciers below.

From up here, the views of the Hellroaring Plateau are astonishing. The beautiful weather and low humidity allowed us to see for no doubt hundreds of miles. If you look closely in the image of Mt. Rearguard above you’ll notice a very dark notch directly below the summit. Well, the view from there was like something from another world. A small glacier is located at the bottom of that notch, but the views back towards Sliderock Lake really steals the show.

Now came the final summit bid. The elevation was really starting to beat me up by this juncture, and I was only able to go 20-25 yards at a time as we neared the peak. Up here, the air is thin and the terrain is difficult. There’s nothing even resembling a “trail”, and the boulders have gone from VW-bus-sized to small-house-sized requiring very careful route finding to not get yourself stuck in a corner.

Finally, around 4.5 hours after we set off we made the top of Mt. Rearguard at 12,209ft elevation. I really can’t describe how I felt at the top of this mountain, partially because I was out of breath, but mostly because just an hour earlier I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it. I’ve read stories of people climbing high mountains, and while this one isn’t exactly a walk in the park it is certainly one of the “easier” options. Easy still whooped my butt.

The view looking back towards our route from the summit reveals the expanse of boulders we just came through, though it lacks the scale of just how big they are. The lyrics from one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs came through perfectly clear in my worn out brain:

“Take it all in, it’s as big as it seems”.

I made it to the top, but the hard part wasn’t over.

Check out Tyler’s other articles in this series

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• White Mountain
• Bunsen Peak
• Norris Geyser Basin
• Star light, star bright
• A ‘Faithful’ meeting
• Shattering Earth
• Isn’t She Grand?
• Canyons of Time
• Cranes and Bison and Bears, oh my!
• Leaving Yellowstone
• The Beartooth Highway
• The First Climb

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

Getting around on the Beartooth Plateau in a car is nothing short of a miracle of human engineering in most cases. There is only one main road, the Beartooth Highway, but there are numerous dirt roads that dot the landscape. My final goal of my trip out west was to summit the highest mountain I’ve yet to hike: the 12,000ft Mt. Rearguard. We could plainly see our target from the Beartooth pass, but getting there isn’t quite so easy.

A drive all the way to the bottom of the plateau nearly to the town of Red Lodge allows you to hop a dirt road and drive another 8 miles back roughly in the direction you came from. However, this dirt road spits you out at the parking lot for the Glacier Lake Trailhead. Here, we loaded up our 40-50lb overnight bags and set out on a trek that would just about beat me by the end of the next day.

There’s really no way around it when you are in the Beartooth Mountains: it is going to be steep. In this case, very steep. An unmaintained social trail runs up from the Glacier Lake trail and it was certainly cut with no regard for the people going up it. Used mainly by people going up to fish the high elevation lakes, this trail runs through some of the most remote, rugged scenery you can imagine. However, this ruggedness also means absolute, unmatched beauty. We were rolling in just as the wildflower season was peaking. This area, that is currently covered in several feet of snow as of December, was a beautiful green mountainside in late July.

As we climbed our way to the top I had to take many breaks. The weight of the pack combined with the quickly increasing elevation was absolutely wearing me out. We gained about 1500ft of elevation in right at 3 miles, mostly done in small spurts of 100-200ft at a time and more gradual rises in between. After a couple hours we found our way just beneath Shelf Lake. Here, the creek blows through the countless rocks and with the blue skies above it really looked out of this world.

The good news for my lungs is that just above that next rise lay Shelf Lake: our stopping spot for the day.

Shelf Lake sits right at 10,100ft above sea level. It is a true glacial lake surrounded by plenty of rocks and a sheer cliff dropping into one side. Up here, the wind almost never stops blowing and it never gets very warm. This particular day was warmer than most, with highs in the 50s and overnight lows around freezing.

We spent most of the afternoon fishing this small lake. We had initially planned on traversing up to Moon Lake, just above Shelf, but decided to save our energy for our climb the next day. The view looking back from near our campsite was absolutely spectacular. You could see how far we had climbed from deep in the valley and from here you begin to get a sense of the scale of just how vast this place is.

We caught some absolutely gorgeous native brook trout in the lake, and learned a lesson about keeping a couple to eat while they are biting. Our plan for fish chowder for supper quickly went south as they stopped biting before we were ready to eat. So, we went to plan b and had our pre-packed meals. After eating I took my camera and set out to capture the countless wildflowers blooming here. I had long dreamed of seeing the wildflower blooms at high elevations, including the lupines. I got my wish, because hundreds of purple lupines dotted the landscape.

The sunset that night was beautiful, but it was soon time for bed. After all, we had a long day ahead of us the next day.

Check out Tyler’s other articles in this series

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• White Mountain
• Bunsen Peak
• Norris Geyser Basin
• Star light, star bright
• A ‘Faithful’ meeting
• Shattering Earth
• Isn’t She Grand?
• Canyons of Time
• Cranes and Bison and Bears, oh my!
• Leaving Yellowstone
• The Beartooth Highway

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

Our time in Yellowstone was behind us, but our trip was far from over.

When you drive out of the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park, you instantly enter the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. US Route 12 runs into the tiny town of Cooke City, Montana, just over the state line. This tiny town is the last chance to restock on any essential supplies before taking the 69-mile drive up one of the most beautiful drives in the country. US Route 12 is renamed the Beartooth Highway for this section as it bounces north and south along the Montana/Wyoming border. Cooke City sits around 7600ft above sea level, but you still have over half a vertical mile to go before reaching the top.

The road quickly climbs into the glacier-built landscape of this region. Tens of thousands of years ago glaciers ground the mountains here into a large plateau. What it left behind is some of the most easily accessible beautiful scenery in the country.

After a stop in Cooke City, we made our way to the Island in the Sky campground. We were pretty tired, and so we took the night off. The next day, we started up the highway for an “easy” day before the next couple of days of strenuous hiking. The drive to the top is very steep. This particular morning, haze was moving in, which made photography very difficult, but it is hard to hide the beauty of this region. We made our way straight to the top.

The top of the highway reaches a lung-wheezing 10,947 feet above sea level. The small rises around the summit will take you just over 11,000 feet if you are feeling antsy to turn the altimeter over. This was my first trip to this elevation since October 2023, when I made a brief visit to Pikes Peak in Colorado. This was a great way to prepare for our 12,000-foot summit attempt in the next couple of days, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t getting pretty winded just walking around.

Up here, snow falls in the tens of feet deep through the winter. There was quite a bit left around the summit even by late July when we visited.

Considering snow was again falling here, less than one month after my visit, there’s no way this snow melted all the way. Up here, the remnants of many, many glaciers remain where the snow/ice never melts. The juxtaposition of the snow and the high elevation wildflowers is quite something.

The harsh climate and rugged mountains don’t support much wildlife. However, countless mountain goats call these places home. Through the winter, they migrate to lower elevations, but in the summer, it is nearly impossible to drive along the road without seeing some. They were actually doing a fairly good job of hiding from us this day, but we still managed to find some grazing. Note the hundreds of rocks; these were all left behind as the enormous glaciers melted, leaving behind the plateau.

The road on the Red Lodge, MT, side is nothing short of an engineering miracle. Here, the switchbacks are incredibly close together as the road winds up the steep cliffs. This means there are a lot of pull-offs at the U-turns to take in the views.

One thing you will notice as you drive the road is that once you reach the top, it is fairly flat. At least, compared to what you just drove. There are still plenty of steep sections, but it isn’t as wildly crazy as you might think. That said, one of the other commonplace things about a glacier-built landscape is the lakes. There are likely hundreds of lakes scattered across this region of the country, all left behind by the glacier bowls. You’ll see plenty of these on your drive, including this large one. Some have names, some don’t, but they are all incredibly beautiful.

And, no trip to the high elevations is complete without taking at least one photo of the thousands of marmots that call this place home. If you are careful, you will also see some pika. We saw plenty of marmots and a handful of pika, but the pika are much harder to photograph. Luckily for me, while the pika weren’t cooperating, the marmots were glad to pose.

We spent most of our day exploring this highway, as well as eating a delicious lunch in Red Lodge. We had one more night of rest before we began the hardest hike of my life….

Check out Tyler’s other articles in this series

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• White Mountain
• Bunsen Peak
• Norris Geyser Basin
• Star light, star bright
• A ‘Faithful’ meeting
• Shattering Earth
• Isn’t She Grand?
• Canyons of Time
• Cranes and Bison and Bears, oh my!
• Leaving Yellowstone

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

After three incredible days in Yellowstone National Park, it was just about time to head to our next destination: the Beartooth Highway. But, we weren’t quite done with Yellowstone just yet. After our run-in with the grizzlies the night before, I woke up before the sun to watch the sunrise over the beautiful fields surrounding Cascade Lake.

It was a bluebird morning with low humidity, which made the chilly 38º in late July feel extra fantastic. It also made the sun extremely bright, so my window for catching it without washing out the shot was very short. Just as it peeked over the nearby ridgeline, the field of purple and white flowers lit up beautifully.

Looking the other direction was no different. The nearby lake, where we had watched a large moose take a drink the night before, reflected the blue sky.

We had a 2-mile hike back to the truck, which luckily this time we ran into neither the bears nor the million mosquitoes we had dealt with on the way in. As we neared the truck, I turned a corner and this interesting play of light caught my eye. This cool little bit of pareidolia, or when our brain sees a pattern that isn’t really there, looked an awful lot like a troll guarding our exit. Do you see it?

A drive to the northeast took us to the absolutely incredible Lamar Valley. We arrived early enough in the day that plenty of wildlife was still out and about. We unfortunately just missed seeing the wolves. Another photographer told us they had seen them about a half hour earlier, but they had gone up into the trees to escape the sun. Out in this valley, you can see what seems like forever.

We set up from an overlook of the valley where we saw plenty of bison, a few pronghorn, and several adorable prairie dogs. These valleys are not only great for the animals on the ground, but they are also excellent for the birds of prey. Hawks and eagles frequent this area, and on this morning we got to see a beautiful juvenile red-tailed hawk, no doubt hunting prairie dogs or rabbits.

We hung out for a couple of hours, hoping to see a return of the wolves. Using binoculars and my giant lens to scan the tree line yielded nothing on this morning, and with the sun rising higher, we had other places to go. We actually backtracked after seeing the first part of the valley.

An overview near Tower Junction caught our eye on the drive down, and it is one of the best overlooks for a real glimpse of the park’s volcanic past. Here, columnar basalt is easily visible all over the walls of the canyon. Here, the Yellowstone Canyon comes to an end, but not before cutting through these six-sided rock columns. These rocks have a complicated history, but form from cooling igneous rock. They can be found all around the world, but are on particularly good display here.

From here, it was finally time to head out of the park. We had thoroughly enjoyed our three days there, but an even grander adventure still lay ahead.

From the northeast exit of the park, you drive straight into the Absorka-Beartooth Wilderness. You briefly cross over into Montana and the lovely small town of Cooke City. This town has a population of only 77 people, but it serves thousands of tourists each year on their trip through Yellowstone and onto the famous Beartooth Highway.

We would spend the next three days of our trip on and around this road, including the hardest hike yet. As we left Yellowstone, we stopped to take a quick snapshot of the mountains awaiting us. The best was yet to come…..

Check out Tyler’s other articles in this series

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• White Mountain
• Bunsen Peak
• Norris Geyser Basin
• Star light, star bright
• A ‘Faithful’ meeting
• Shattering Earth
• Isn’t She Grand?
• Canyons of Time
• Cranes and Bison and Bears, oh my!

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

While Yellowstone National Park is globally acclaimed for its beautiful scenery, it is perhaps even more well-known for its wildlife.

According to the National Park Service, the park is home to 67 different species of mammals, 300 species of birds, 16 species of fish, five species of amphibians, and six species of reptiles. Among these, the gray wolves, bison, grizzly bears, and moose get most of the press. Naturally, I had high hopes to see at least a couple of these on our trip to the park in late July. I made sure to rent a large lens for the trip: Sony’s FE 200-600mm, a lens nearly as large as my 2-year-old and that weighs about as much.

We saw a couple of elk near Mammoth Hot Springs on our first day out, but beyond that, we wouldn’t see a ton of wildlife until the end of Day 2, around Grand Prismatic Spring, and Day 3 in the Lamar Valley and Cascade Lake. The first animals I got some great shots of are the always fascinating Sandhill Cranes. These tall birds can be found during migration across most of the country, but strongly prefer cooler climates and can even be found in Siberia. They can grow over 4ft tall and make a sound that is quite unmistakable. They sound more like bugs than birds to me, but when you hear it, you’ll know for sure what it is.

Bison are by far the most prolific large mammal in the park, and we saw countless (likely several hundred) of them on our trip. On our drive through the Hayden River Valley, we came across several, including this fellow that we watched for a while. After spending some time creekside, he wandered in our direction and found a good place for a dust bath. Bison do this for the same reason as many other animals: to help discourage insects and mites.

We made an attempt to catch the wolves early on our third morning in the park in the stunning Lamar Valley. Here, we saw hundreds of bison, numerous pronghorns, several adorable prairie dogs, and numerous birds. I’ll be sharing those photos in a separate post about the Lamar Valley and our exit from Yellowstone next week.

Our real fun came on our second camping night in the park. It had been a very long day of hiking, and we were both exhausted before even leaving the truck to hike the 2 miles into our campsite for the night. I decided to leave behind my giant telephoto lens as it was getting dark, and I didn’t want the extra pounds in my pack. I would shortly regret that decision.

The hike into Cascade Lake was absolutely beautiful. The sun was setting as we hiked in, and dusk was falling over the beautiful rolling fields full of wildflowers. After fighting off thousands of mosquitoes, we finally got near our campsite. About 1/4 mile away, I noticed something moving in the trees. We both froze, my buddy got out his binoculars, and I peeled my eyes. I was almost certain I knew what I had seen, but I wanted to be sure. After a tense moment, not one, not two, not three, but FOUR grizzly bears emerged from the woods about 100-150 yards ahead of us and to our left. Where was my telephoto lens again? In the truck. The bears moved slowly as they meandered among and munched on the huckleberry bushes.

We quickly determined this was a mother and three cubs, although the cubs were likely a year old or more and nearly full-grown. They showed very little interest in us, though one of the cubs did stand up to get a better look. My telephoto was in the truck, but I did have my lightweight long lens on me. It isn’t made for shooting at dusk and doesn’t have image stabilization, but I still managed to snag some shots. It was simultaneously one of the most terrifying and exhilarating moments of my life, being so close to these beautiful animals. They crossed the trail only about 50-75 yards ahead of us and kept on moving up the mountain. To our knowledge, they never visited our camp overnight despite us being so close by.

When we got to the lake, we were greeted by a pair of trumpeter swans, but it was far too dark to take any photos by this point. We camped along the edge of the woods with a great view of the trail leading into the lake, and that was when we got our second big surprise of the night. I have no photos because it was getting very dark by this point, but we saw a giant bull moose making his way to the lake for a drink. There was just enough light to get a decent look with binoculars, and let’s just say he was far more scary than the grizzlies.

When we left Cascade Lake the next morning, we saw this beautiful crane flying across the lake, but I wasn’t close enough to get a species ID.

I’ll have more images of wildlife to share next week, but nothing will top our evening with the grizzlies near Cascade Lake.

Check out Tyler’s other articles in this series:

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• White Mountain
• Bunsen Peak
• Norris Geyser Basin
• Star light, star bright
• A ‘Faithful’ meeting
• Shattering Earth
• Isn’t She Grand?
• Canyons of Time

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

The geography across Yellowstone National Park is very diverse. Up to this point, we had seen mainly the rolling hills and valleys with just a couple of sections of steep mountains. In the northeast corner of the park, however, stands one of the world’s greatest geological wonders: Yellowstone Canyon.

Dubbed the “Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone”, this 1,000-foot-deep ravine is carved for roughly 20 miles. It features three stunning waterfalls, including Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls and Tower Falls. Its width varies from 1,500ft to 4,000ft, and the walls are lined with colorful rocks. The canyon’s colors almost look fake in person.

The canyon itself is relatively young by geological terms. The last eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano was “only” 630,000 years ago, and the canyon has formed since then. Geologists with the National Park Service and USGS believe a smaller canyon formed no more than 140,000-160,000 years ago. Over time, changing hydrothermal activity gradually weakened the rocks, allowing the river to carve its way down. Hydrothermal activity, including geysers, fumaroles, and steam vents, can still be spotted from time to time within the canyon walls.

The main show of the canyon, though, is the pair of giant waterfalls at its upstream (southwest, in this case) end. The upper falls look very similar to the iconic Linville Falls in North Carolina. When visiting the upper falls overlook, I ran into some camera issues that precluded me from getting any good photos, but I was able to snap this from downstream later in the day.

The upper falls drop 109 feet, more than twice as high as the aforementioned look-alike in NC. It is here that the river begins to cut into the softer rock, with much harder volcanic rock found upstream. Just a few hundred yards downstream, the real fun begins.

Lower Yellowstone Falls is absolutely gigantic. It drops 308ft from the top to the river below, and accomplishes it in one fell swoop. The lower falls are the centerpiece of one of the most iconic views in the entire National Park System. Artist Point is located on the southern rim and offers an unobstructed view of the beautiful canyon with the massive falls in the distance.

The views of the lower falls are limited from the south rim, but a quick drive around the north rim offers many different perspectives. Parking can be a challenge in this busy spot, and we saw license plates from all over the country, plus Canada.

A steep trail descends to my favorite viewpoint we visited: the brink of the lower falls. A narrow trail and viewpoint bring you literally to the edge of the lower falls. From here, you can see the water falling a football field distance below you. On this day, we were treated to a beautiful double rainbow in the steam. I got my favorite photo of the trip from this spot, making it well worth the steep hike.

From there, we were limited on time but hit a couple more viewpoints. I made sure to capture some photos of the fantastic rock formations on the far side of the canyon, showing them in isolation. Photos really don’t do the colors justice. The deep browns, reds, and yellows stand out starkly against the green vegetation and blue sky.

From the canyon, we had to quickly make our way towards our next stop and campsite for the night. And we might meet a few “friends” along the way….

Check out Tyler’s other articles in this series:

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• White Mountain
• Bunsen Peak
• Norris Geyser Basin
• Star light, star bright
• A ‘Faithful’ meeting
• Shattering Earth
• Isn’t She Grand?

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

After leaving the Upper Geyser Basin behind around mid-morning, my buddy was ready for a nap, and I was ready to see the second most famous feature in Yellowstone behind Old Faithful.

I had gotten a peek at the Grand Prismatic Spring on our hike out earlier that morning, but the cool air resulted in plentiful mist that largely obscured the views of the spring itself. There is a boardwalk that runs out next to the spring, but it was incredibly crowded, and I wanted to get a bird’s eye view anyway. A quick hike back out the trail we had just left a few hours before at sunrise brought me back to a view I won’t soon forget.

The Grand Prismatic Spring comes by its name honestly. The deep blue color of the middle is due purely to the fact that this is crystal-clear, sterile water. The temperatures in the center of the spring can reach as high as 160ºF, keeping all but the most hardy of bacteria away. Near the edges, where temperatures are cooler, a variety of thermophiles (bacteria that thrive in high temperatures) exist. The colors fade around the edge from blue to green and eventually yellow and orange/red.

The spring is a whopping 360ft wide by 160ft deep, making it the 3rd largest hot spring in the world. On a warm summer afternoon like this, the mist rising from the hot water creates a near-perfect reflection of the colors below. Above, I took a photo over the center of the spring from roughly eye-level with it about a hundred yards away. I also noticed that near the edge, this phenomenon appeared to reflect a rainbow. I spent several minutes marveling at this and watching the wind whip the mist, trying to get the perfect shot to capture what I was seeing.

The area also includes two other major springs: the Turquoise Pool and the Excelsior Geyser Crater Pool. But alas, we only had so much time and more ground to cover. If you ever visit Yellowstone, be sure to allow yourself a bit more time than we did.

After a drive to the other side of the park, we took in the sights along Yellowstone Lake. This massive, deep blue lake is the largest high-elevation lake in North America. Interestingly, underground geology is causing the lake to “tilt” to the south ever so slightly. Along western shores, you can find yet another geyser basin. This one contained the bluest hot pools of the trip, and the view of them so nearby the freezing cold lake was certainly impressive.

Glancing out across the lake on this clear day, we could see the tall mountains in the distance, including those that we would be hiking in the days to come.

On our way to our campsite, we made one more stop at the Mud Volcano area of the park. Here, I saw my first up-close bison of the trip and got the pleasure of witnessing it taking a dust bath. Like many animals, bison do this to help keep mites and ticks away, and frankly, it looks like quite a bit of fun as well.

I also got to unexpectedly witness one of my favorite optical phenomena: a glory. Immediately next to the Mud Volcano parking is a deep trench that contains a handful of fumaroles and small springs. These are constantly outputting steam (that smells absolutely terrible, by the way), and with the sun high overhead, a glory formed around my head. A glory is an optical phenomenon where a “rainbow” appears around a shadow against a background of clouds. These are most commonly seen from airplanes, but in the right circumstances, can be seen from the ground as well.

It had been yet another very long day which meant it was time for another hike into our campsite for the night. This hike would give us a bit more than we bargained for….

Check out Tyler’s other articles in this series:

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• White Mountain
• Bunsen Peak
• Norris Geyser Basin
• Star light, star bright
• A ‘Faithful’ meeting
• Shattering Earth

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

Located just behind Old Faithful when approaching from the main parking lot lies one of the most active areas of Yellowstone National Park.

The Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone features the most recognizable features in the park outside of the Grand Prismatic Spring. Old Faithful itself, as well as the Morning Glory Pool and Castle Geyser, are all staples of any visit to the park’s geothermal areas.

As you walk down toward the Firehole River to start your way on the boardwalk, you are quickly reminded of how this river got its name. All along the shore, numerous hot springs run into its waters, often appearing like this as streaks of white and orange. This small hot spring on our side of the river, coupled with the large flow from another on the other side, really highlights this. The people on the other side really give some perspective on just how big this area is.

According to the National Park Service, 150 or more geysers are located in just one square mile of this basin. We were fortunate to see several erupting on our visit. None is quite as impressive as Old Faithful, but they are all quite something to see in their own right.

Castle Geyser, as well as an additional one I could not positively ID, were both putting on quite a show at the same time, as you can see below. The roar of the water and steam from these features is impressive and something you have to hear yourself to fully understand.

Easily my favorite active spot of this basin was the Grotto Geyser. This double geyser was highly active on the day of our visit. While it doesn’t spray water nearly as high as some of its compatriots, the constant churning of the water made for a very eerie sound. The holes around this pair I also found quite fascinating. This geyser looks quite different from every angle you view it from, making it a very cool spot indeed.

This basin offers the best opportunity to get up close and personal with the stunning rock formations that comprise these geysers. The water spray builds up over time and forms beautiful, almost coral-like features along the mounds that make up the geyser’s cone.

I took this up close shot of Castle Geyser to highlight these beautiful rocks. These formations are constantly changing as the boiling water moves silt and rock out from underground.

The pools of this basin are also absolutely nothing to sneeze at. There are hundreds of small hot springs and fumaroles scattered across the landscape, and many of them are breathtaking.

This pool had a beautiful border built up during our visit and was covered in a very thin crust of rock. You can see just how deep it is by peeking in the brilliant blue hole.

Travel off the boardwalks in the geothermal areas is incredibly dangerous and has resulted in many fatalities and injuries over the years within the park. One step onto the thin crust of this pool and you would likely fall in and be badly burned or killed.

The most brilliant and famous of all the pools in this basin is, without a doubt, the Morning Glory Pool. The history of this pool dates back to the park’s early days. Unfortunately, over the years, it has also taken quite a bit of damage. Tourists have long tossed rocks and trash into this pool, resulting in a dramatic change in its color.

The orange and yellows you see here used to only line the outside of the pool, but blockages from the trash, coins, and other things have resulted in the pool cooling down, and the deep blue slowly receding.

This spot stands as a testament to what can happen when we are not mindful of our impact on nature. What was once a beautiful, deep blue pool has been altered forever by the poor behavior of humans.

The Upper Geyser Basin is worth spending 2-3 hours in at least, and with this now out of the way, it was time to head on to our next stop…..

Check out Tyler’s other articles in this series:

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• White Mountain
• Bunsen Peak
• Norris Geyser Basin
• Star light, star bright
• A ‘Faithful’ meeting

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

One thing you should know about Yellowstone after dark is this: it is quiet. Here in the Southeast, we are used to the cacophony of bugs and other animals making plenty of noise at night, but as we camped at Imperial Meadows, the only sound we heard was some very distant wolves.

Morning came early after our night of viewing the stars, but we had another full day planned in Yellowstone. Our hike out took us down the same path as the night before, but this time, with enough light from dawn, we could actually see our way through without headlamps. We had passed by the very tall Fairy Falls the night before in the dark, but this way out in the morning, we could actually see it, and I snapped a quick photo with my phone. If I ever return, I will get a better photo with the camera, but we were trying to get to the Grand Prismatic Spring basin for sunrise.

The hike out through the forest on this crisp 34º morning was delightful, and as we approached the Grand Prismatic basin, we could begin to see steam rising from the springs. These very hot springs emitted plenty of steam on a cool morning like this, and from our initial viewpoint, it looked like the ground was on fire, puffing gigantic columns of smoke. It is impossible to convey just how beautiful this scene is.

I made a quick detour up the steep hill to get an overlook at the basin, and catching a hint of sun through the steam made for an absolutely incredible view. At this time of day, the deep blues and oranges of the springs themselves are nearly impossible to see, but we did return later in the day to catch those.

The hike back to the truck took us by the Firehole River, and the nearly countless small springs, fumaroles, and geysers were all spouting off plenty of steam, making the landscape appear to be constantly changing. It is a truly breathtaking sight, and one that just a small handful of people around us were up early enough to see.

Our primary goal for this morning was to see the infamous geyser Old Faithful. While we did see numerous geysers erupt during our visit, this one is by far the most consistently impressive.

Old Faithful has been erupting consistently since its official discovery in 1870. Each eruption can reach as high as 185 feet, but most often falls between 120 and 160 feet. Eruptions occur roughly once every hour and a half, just slightly less frequently than the 66-minute average at its discovery. Eruptions have also become somewhat shorter, averaging 15 minutes in the early 1900s to now, with durations ranging from 2 to 5 minutes.

There are numerous shops and hotels around Old Faithful, including the historic Old Faithful Inn, which I strongly suggest at least stopping inside of, but the geyser sits as the star of the show.

We made our way to the east side of the crater so the sun would be at our back. I had hoped to catch a rainbow/steam bow in the spray, and while it was plainly visible to the eye, it wasn’t as bright on camera. Regardless, the eruption was stunning, with water shooting high into the air. The eruption we witnessed lasted for about 2-3 minutes.

After the eruption, we made our way to a nearby picnic area to cook some delicious breakfast. The basin around Old Faithful is extremely active with plenty of hot springs, fumaroles, and other geysers constantly erupting. Our next few hours would be spent enjoying those, but we’ll talk about that next week….

Check out Tyler’s other articles in this series:

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• White Mountain
• Bunsen Peak
• Norris Geyser Basin
• Star light, star bright

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

After leaving Norris Basin, it was time to head to our first campsite of the trip. I had booked us in Imperial Meadows, site OD4 on the backcountry list, and a roughly 2-mile, mostly flat hike lay ahead of us. Unfortunately, it was nearly dark. We decided to eat supper at the truck, so we fired up the grill in the parking lot of the Grand Prismatic Spring. While eating along the Firehole River, a bald eagle swooped through, no doubt looking for its own supper.

Given our lack of time, I didn’t take any photos on our way to our site. Most of the hike was in the dark, regardless, which I don’t recommend. This is grizzly bear country, after all. We managed to reach our site without getting eaten by any bears, and after a quick tent set-up, it was time for bed. Well, almost. It wasn’t planned, but I happened to be in Yellowstone National Park during a new moon and under clear skies.

Dark skies are categorized into nine distinct levels on the simplified Bortle scale. Zone 1 is the darkest sky on Earth, while Zone 9 is an inner city with near-daylight levels of light pollution. There are no Bortle 1 zones east of the Mississippi, and the darkest skies I had ever seen were a Bortle 2 on my trip to the Great Sand Dunes in 2023.

Yellowstone National Park? Well, it’s a Bortle 1.

There aren’t many of these dark sky zones left in the country, with only the most remote regions seeing the darkest skies on Earth. I had resolved to myself that, despite late sunsets and early sunrises, I was going to see the night sky on this trip at least once. As luck would have it, I was awake unintentionally after dark. Imperial Meadows is exactly what it sounds like, a series of large meadows with very little tree coverage. This was great for dark sky viewing, as we had a very short walk of only 25-30 yards to a wide-open sky view. Even without allowing much time for our eyes to adjust, we were immediately awestruck by how many stars you could see and how much of the Milky Way was readily visible.

As our eyes adjusted, the number of stars continued to increase. In a very short period of time, we realized that despite the lack of a moon, you could actually see around you. After about 10 minutes of adjustment, we no longer needed our red lights to move around much. It was truly amazing to see with just starlight.

One phenomenon I had never witnessed due to light pollution was airglow. It isn’t visible to the naked eye, but it can be detected in photographs taken under dark enough skies. You can see some of the light green areas just above the trees in the image above, but pointing the camera away from the core of the Milky Way really highlighted these green and red ripples.

Airglow is generally caused by oxygen and nitrogen molecules emitting light after being hit by UV radiation. On this night, the green was especially prevalent in my 30-second exposures. You may notice some bright red/purple on the left and think: That looks oddly familiar. I was also lucky enough to have captured a photographic aurora looking to the north. There was a weak G1 storm underway, which in most circumstances would’ve been completely impossible to pick up, but when you are in the darkest skies on Earth, even the faintest glow becomes noticeable. These were actually visible to the naked eye as a very faint, purple glow.

As enamored with the view as we were, it had been a long day, and we had another long one ahead. As I went to bed that night, I couldn’t help but think of a quote from my favorite comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes.

“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.” ~ Bill Waterson

Other articles in this series:

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• White Mountain
• Bunsen Peak
• Norris Geyser Basin

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go west, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

After getting a nice 4-mile hike up Bunsen Peak, it was now time to go watch the Earth sneeze. And by that, I mean see some geysers.

Norris Geyser Basin is located a ways south of Bunsen Peak, but the drive there is absolutely gorgeous. This shouldn’t be a surprise if you saw the images from last week’s story that featured the giant, beautiful valley located at the north end of the park. As you approach the basin, though, the elevation dips a bit, and you start to see more and more springs and random bits of steam. You’ll also drive by Roaring Mountain, a large area of fumaroles that in the early 1900s could be heard from several miles away.

You get some nice overviews of some natural lakes and springs on the drive down as well. This particular lake is located just above Norris and is called Nymph Lake. Note the deep blue colored spring just visible through the trees near the bottom of the image.

There are several boardwalks that run through Norris Geyser Basin. The basin is actually split into three areas: Porcelain Basin, Back Basin and One Hundred Springs Plain. The main things you will see are Porcelain and Back Basins as these contain some of the more impressive parts. On this particular day we were treated to partly cloudy skies and a very active landscape. Ledge geyser was particularly active on this day as it emitted a very loud growl of steam. The view overlooking the Porcelain Basin is really something else and photos don’t really do it justice.

As you walk along the boardwalk you will see pool after pool of bubbling water and countless steam vents. If you weren’t used to the smell of sulfur already from visiting Mammoth Hot Springs, you’ll definitely have to get over it here as the air is full of the stench from time to time. Norris Geyser Basin is the hottest basin in the park with almost all of the thermal features being above the boiling point (199º at this elevation). The hottest temperature ever recorded in the park came from a drilling project in the basin where a temperature of 439ºF was recorded just 1000 feet down, very impressive. The waters here are also very acidic which is the opposite of the rest of the park. Algae manages to grow in the flowing waters between the springs and shows as a brilliant green against the otherwise mostly white, tan and gray landscape.

As you head towards Back Basin you will get to see the largest active geyser in the world: Steamboat Geyser. This geyser has an extremely irregular eruption schedule, sometimes going days and other times decades between major eruptions. When it does erupt, it can send water as high as 300ft into the air, nearly double the height of the infamous Old Faithful. While it wasn’t erupting during our visit, the geyser is almost always putting off plenty of steam. The red colors of these rocks are largely due to extremophile bacteria thriving on the acidic soils.

The colors in the Back Basin vary quite a bit and are different than many other areas in the park due to the acidity. This beautiful, deep blue pool, known as Cistern Spring, is surrounded by trees that have fallen victim to the harsh volcanic environment.

If you pay close attention, you will likely also get to see plenty of small pools bubbling like mad. This tiny pool was trying its best to be a full-blown geyser, shooting water around 6-8ft in the air.

Perhaps my favorite spot was the Black Hermit Cauldron, where water churns out of a hole in the hillside, but unfortunately, the steam didn’t allow for any great photos; you’ll have to go see it for yourself.

The rest of the hike around the basin is filled with views like the one below. Beautiful pools, spouting steam, and the smell of sulfur all lead to feeling like you are on another planet.

Unfortunately for us, by the time we got done at Norris Geyser Basin, the day was drawing near a close. It was time to head to our campsite for the night, which was going to require a 2-mile hike in, so we’d best get going….

Other articles in this series:

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• White Mountain
• Bunsen Peak

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go West, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

After leaving the Mammoth Hot Springs, we could already see our next target. Bunsen Peak sticks out like a sore thumb as you drive north into the broad valleys of the northern end of Yellowstone National Park. This mountain is some of what remains of the parks rich volcanic past. The igneous rock peak with very few trees near the summit is directly south of Mammoth Springs.

This 4.2 mile out-and-back trail takes you up well over 1,000 vertical peak to an elevation of 8,564 feet, our first “high elevation” hike of the trip. The trail quickly goes uphill and while the views from the base are great, they get truly grand as you work up the hill. You quickly come to a high elevation meadow that on this beautiful mid-July day was absolutely covered in beautiful wildflowers. A lone tree towards the middle caught my eye growing at a steep angle to keep growing straight up. The mountains with lingering snow in the background were truly a sight to see.

It doesn’t take long to find some of the real volcanic remains as you continue to huff and puff your way up the hill. You’ll find some gooseberries on the sides of the trail just before you emerge at this great vantage point. Again, a lone tree, this time dead, dominates a photographer’s eye with the sharp red spires. You can see the Mammoth Cave Area in the distance from here quite well.

The trail gets very steep as you near the top which required us to take several breaks. This was my first time hiking at over 8,000ft elevation since October of 2023 in the Great Sand Dunes, so I was really feeling the elevation less than 24 hours after my arrival from the “lowlands”. The trail becomes nothing but loose rock towards the top, and eventually we did arrive at the peak marked with a shelter and communications tower. You can find a hiker sign-in book as well as an elevation sign at the shelter. This is also a great place to get a break from the sun that is very tough in the dry air. On this particular day it was quite windy, although I imagine it is quite windy most of the time. The tall 10,000ft or higher peaks to the west really stand out.

Once again, I managed to find a photogenic, dead tree standing alone at the top of this rocky mountain. The views looking to the east, south and west are by far the best with the northern direction being more blocked by trees from the main rock face.

If you turn around and walk through the trees, there is one quite good view looking off to the north/northeast. It was somewhat hazy on this particular day, but you could still see all the way to the Absarorka-Beartooth Wilderness and the Beartooth Plateau, a place we would visit in just a few days time.

After spending a bit at the top and having a snack, it was time to make the much easier hike down the steep slopes. We stopped once again to admire the view looking over the valley below on the way down, looking deep into the heart of Yellowstone country.

We arrived back at the truck and after a quick lunch it was time to go see more stuff. We were on a time constraint, after all, and the exploding ground doesn’t like to wait…..

Other articles in this series: 

• Go West, young man: To where it started
• Go West, young man: White mountain

Editor’s note: In July 2025, Now Habersham weathercaster Tyler Penland headed west to hike and camp in Yellowstone National Park. His latest “Go West, young man” series features the stunning images he captured and the stories he brought back.

As you stand at the Mammoth Visitor’s Center in Yellowstone, you may get a whiff of sulfur in the air. If you plan on spending much time in the geothermal features of the park, you’d best get used to that smell.

On the crisp mid-60s morning of July 23rd, steam was rising from the giant white hill lying just beyond the buildings. This stark white stands out from the rest of the surrounding green and grey hillsides. If you look closely, you’ll probably see some prairie dogs poking their heads out of the grass as you drive towards the giant pile of steaming rock. Finding parking was easy for us this particular morning, although that isn’t always the case. The Mammoth Hot Springs are the main feature of the northern end of the park.

These hot springs have been active for several thousand years and are constantly changing. The water supply comes from the Norris Geyser Basin and travels along a fault line from south to north before bubbling through the surface into superheated springs. As it travels, the water picks up limestone, which then gets deposited in stunning white, grey, tan, and rust colored rock formations. This rock is known as travertine, and the formations are mostly known as terraces, due to their terraced nature.

These terraces are in a state of constant change. They are constantly being built downstream and eroding above. Water flow from the different springs has changed over the past few decades. According to a report from the USGS in 1978, the area consists of over 100 springs, although many of these spend much of the time dormant. Currently, there are a handful of vibrant springs visible from the many boardwalks that take you over this fragile area.

The area is fragile and also quite dangerous. The water temperatures can reach maximum temperatures around 160ºF, although they are generally slightly cooler. Plentiful steam rises from the springs and terraces on cool days. One interesting point is that the water isn’t particularly acidic. Acidic water is commonly associated with volcanoes and volcanic features, but most of the water in Yellowstone isn’t very acidic. In fact, after emerging around a PH of 6 (barely acidic), the waters in Mammoth Hot Springs turn slightly basic once losing their carbon dioxide.

The constantly changing nature of the terraces is evident in the number of unfortunate trees that were trapped in the advancing limestone. These dead trees stick out of the chalky ground in numerous spots.

Viewing these terraces up close reveals the truly fascinating nature of the travertine. It looks like something you would see in a cave (which it is). The slow drip of the water results in fascinating spires of rock that look like they come from an alien planet.

No spot is as beautiful as the Minerva Spring Terrace. The beautiful colors of the rock really show off in this spot full of small stepped terraces and taller ones towards the top.

We spent about an hour and a half exploring this area, but our journey was just beginning. It was time to go climb our first mountain….

Other articles in this series:

Go West, young man: To where it started

The last time I got the chance to travel west and see more of this beautiful country was all the way back in March of 2024. On that trip, I visited the Redwood National Park and saw much of the Oregon Coastline. A trip just two months later would take me to the Mississippi River for the solar eclipse, but since then, I’ve been sitting right here at home in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

Just after that trip last April, my best friend packed his bags and moved to Montana. I followed him as far as Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, before saying goodbye and promising to come visit. He is one of the many reasons I am as into the outdoors as I am today, and he is well versed in my photography obsession. I finally made the trip to visit in late July, and this trip would take me back to where the National Park Service started.

I consider myself a purveyor of National Parks, although most of my visiting just started within the past couple years. Growing up near the Great Smokies has been great, but I have expanded my visits to include 8 National Park units with at least 3 more planned by the end of the year.

Yellowstone National Park was first designated as a public park in 1872, well before the National Park Service was brought into existence by Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Since then, the NPS has grown to manage 430 different sites of natural and cultural significance. Georgia is home to 10 of these sites, including Cumberland Island National Seashore. The NPS also helps manage the Appalachian Trail.

Yellowstone is the 8th largest National Park coming in at a whopping 2,219,791 acres or 3,471 square miles. The park is mostly in Wyoming, though small bits reach into both Idaho and Montana.

My flights out there took me through the Denver Airport where I saw my first snow of the trip high on the distant peaks. The views from the plane on the way to Denver were lacking due to clouds, but near a sunset landing in Billings I was witness to some beautiful cloud formations and eventually the mighty Yellowstone River that I would be following for the next few days.

Our trip would start from the industrial town of Billings, Montana. Despite being the largest town in the entire state, Billings seems incredibly small compared to our cities locally. It is around the same size as Asheville, NC, although it has a very different feel. The numerous mountains and buttes around the region are truly spectacular.

Jimmy Buffett fans will recognize one of the towns we drove through as we exited the interstate to start south into Yellowstone. Livingston, MT was the inspiration for “Livingston Saturday Night”. We were there on a Wednesday this trip, and didn’t have time to stop.

As the road winds south towards the park, the views get increasingly spectacular. You follow Highway 89 past numerous ranches and cabins and parallel the mighty Yellowstone River.

You leave the river behind as you head into the small town of Mammoth that marks the North Entrance to the park. On this particular day the crowds weren’t too bad, and we made a quick stop to pick up our back country permits that would allow us to camp in the further reaches of the park for the next 2 nights. Our trip was just getting started, and from the visitor’s center we could see the first steam on the hillsides: the ground seemed to be on fire…..

If all goes according to plan, I will be standing somewhere in Yellowstone National Park or the adjacent Beartooth Wilderness as you are reading this article.

As an avid outdoorsman, Yellowstone has been very high on my list of National Parks I want to visit. The untold beauty of the area is unmatched anywhere else in the world, with arguably the best geothermal features in the entire world. From geysers, to beautiful springs, to just cool rocks the park is one non-stop geologic wonder.

The “Supervolcano”

There are two different ideas of the Yellowstone “supervolcano”: the pop culture version, and the realistic one. The Yellowstone Caldera is a very large area that is roughly 17,000 square miles. This caldera isn’t just one giant volcano, but rather the remnants of several large, separate eruptions over the past couple million years. In the grand scheme of the Earth, the volcano is very young with the oldest volcanic rock in the area only 2.5 million years old. There have been 4 known eruptions roughly 2.1 million, 1.3 million, 626 thousand and 176 thousand years ago respectively.

This is all due to a “hot spot” that lies just beneath the surface. This area of magma close to the surface The Yellowstone Hotspot has been known to produce volcanos for at least 16 million years, and traces a path from eastern Washington up through Idaho and to it’s current spot under Yellowstone National Park. A hot spot is a place beneath the surface where magma is particularly close and is regularly replenished from below. The Hawaiian Islands were produced in this same manner.

While you may read that the Yellowstone “supervolcano” is overdue for an eruption, that couldn’t be further from the truth. With only 4 known eruptions in the past 2 million years, one anytime soon seems unlikely. Scientists are constantly monitoring the area for seismic and geothermal activity.

The Springs

Arguably the most iconic part of any National Park in the US is the Grand Prismatic Spring. Water filters down through the soil until it comes into contact with heated rock, around 6,000 feet below the surface. There it heats up to a boil and rises back towards the surface. When it gets there, it forms some brilliant pools of deep blue water. None are as impressive as the Grand Prismatic Spring. The bright colors are due to different types of algae that thrive in high temperatures, known as thermophiles. They have to love the heat, because the spring stays constantly around 160ºF. Since different bacteria thrive at different temperatures, the colorful rings work outward as the temp drops.

There are nearly countless pools and springs located throughout Yellowstone and new ones are forming regularly. In fact, one new hot spring was recently discovered by scientists on a routine check of the Norris Geyser Basin.

This slow movement upwards of water can also result in some very cool formations like the one below. When the water gets mixed with mud (generally limestone based), it creates a “mud volcano” that build beautiful, alien looking terraces.

In rare circumstances the water can be forced up a bit more channeled.

The Geysers

Geysers form under very, very specific circumstances and only exist in a few places in the world. Yellowstone National Park contains over 500 (perhaps as many as 1,000+), which accounts for over half the known ones in the world. Like springs and pools, water must filter down and touch hot rock, but in this case it is channeled up through a narrow escape route and experiences some sort of blockage. The result: a large surface explosion of hot water and steam when the pressure gets too great. By far and away the most well known geyser in the world is Old Faithful. It comes by its name honestly, erupting regularly every 1-2 hours (on average 90 minutes). According to the National Park Service, water from this geyser shoots as high as 150ft in the air and is a scalding 169ºF upon it’s exit. In addition, 3700 to 8400 gallons of water are expelled each eruption. Pretty cool if you ask me.

I am incredibly excited to witness these sights for myself, and you can look for tons of photos of not only the geothermal features, but also the abundant wildlife and wildflowers of the region. I will also be spending time on the Beartooth Highway and Beartooth Plateau hiking the high elevations where there is still snow.

I’ll see you on the road…..

In his latest travelogue, NH weather reporter Tyler Penland takes us to St. Louis, where he stopped while chasing the solar eclipse in April.

St. Louis has long been known as the “Gateway to the West.” Ever since early settlers used it as a jumping-off point for exploring the Louisiana Purchase, the city has been squarely in the center of “manifest destiny.” It is no surprise that in 1935, part of this city was designated the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

It would take another 31 years for the plan to come completely into place, but in 1966, the construction of one of the most recognizable architectural sites in the world began. From 1963 to 1965, the Gateway Arch was constructed. Made entirely of stainless steel on the outside, the arch glistens in the sun as a monument to those who braved the journey to expand the country east of the Mississippi.

It was only in 2018 that the Gateway Arch was designated a National Park, making it one of our nation’s newer parks. According to the National Park Service, the Arch was one of 172 designs submitted for the site back in the ’60s. Construction was finished in October of 1965. The arch is 630 feet high and is the same width as its height.

Looking directly up at it, you get a sense of just how narrow it is for its height.

The Arch was designed to sway up to 18 inches and be earthquake and tornado-proof. The National Park Service says it has been documented to sway up to 1.5 inches with a 50 m.p.h. wind.

The Park property runs from the old courthouse a few blocks inland to the Mississippi River. This was my first time ever seeing the Mississippi River from anything but an airplane. The river here is bordered by a brick levee that is fascinating to walk along. The river was quite muddy on my trip, which I’m sure happens frequently. They don’t call it the “muddy Mississip” for no reason.

One of the best ways to see the historic riverfront is by riverboat. If you travel to St. Louis and have time, catch a cruise on the Park’s boat.

The National Park grounds include numerous small parks, including some absolutely beautiful landscaping and a nice pond. I had plenty of time this afternoon to take in the grounds.

Underground beneath the Arch, they have an absolutely phenomenal museum and interpretive area that I highly recommend checking out. Just be advised that you will have to go through a TSA-type check to get underneath.

The Arch also has a pair of elevators that run up the sides. These elevators aren’t traditional straight up and down but rotate on an axis. If you plan ahead, you can ride in one of these and get a view from the top. Unfortunately, I was there with thousands of others visiting the Arch the day before the Total Solar Eclipse, so it was long sold out. I hope to get back one day and take the ride. I had to settle for catching a view of the Arch over the old courthouse from one of the nice parks that cuts into downtown St. Louis.

After spending the majority of the afternoon wandering around the area it was time to meet up with friends and catch the eclipse.

Up in the hills of northern Kentucky sits a protected natural area that is almost unknown outside the hiking, climbing, and local communities.

On my recent trip to catch the Total Solar Eclipse back in April I decided to take a bit of a scenic route. My trip would take me up through the town of Hazard, Kentucky (no relation to the Duke boys), where I did a bit of fossil hunting. Kentucky isn’t exactly the first place you probably think of when you think of fossils, but the state has a rich history that goes back from the ancient sea beds to the old carboniferous forests that resulted in the region’s coal. In the Hazard area, you can find leaf imprints hidden amongst the rocks if you know where to look and are patient. Unfortunately for me, I was on a bit of a time crunch, and this trip wasn’t particularly successful.

No matter, though, I continued on my journey to a place I had briefly visited once before: the Red River Gorge. I wanted to break up my long drive toward St. Louis with a hike.

One other thing you probably don’t think of when Kentucky is brought up is stone arches. Surprisingly, the area around the Red River contains the most arches east of the Mississippi with 150 known. According to the National Park Service this is second only to Arches National Park itself out in Utah. The Red River has long been carving through this region creating many canyons, bridges and arches out of the sandstone.

Off the beaten path

I had visited Natural Bridge, the most commonly visited spot, many years ago but this time I wanted to see something a bit more… off the beaten path. This led me to the Copperas Falls trailhead. Unlike the arches out west, the ones in the Red River Gorge aren’t all that easy to find. They are mostly located in dense forests, and many of them are not very large. Hopewell Arch is one of the most famous not located on an official trail. This arch looks like a double arch despite not officially qualifying as one.

You get to this arch by hopping a small creek and following a narrow path up a steep slope. A bit of easy climbing will lead you right underneath it.

On this particular day, water dripped from the top of the arch pretty incessantly, so unless I wanted to get wet, I had to watch where I was standing. A couple of raindrops on the lens resulted in this shot, which I found pretty cool.

After enjoying the arch for a little while I continued back down the hill and on to Copperas Falls. I had seen photos of this waterfall before but I did not realize just how tall it was until I saw it in person.

The falls are around 40-50 feet high and are truly impressive when you turn the corner to see them for the first time. The people in the middle left of this image give some sense of scale.

The falls pour over a large sandstone outcrop that forms a large cave behind them. This leaves plenty of room to walk behind and get some very cool shots of the waterfall. There aren’t a ton of places you can do this on the East Coast and each one is special.

You can climb up from each side of the falls as well and even stand right at the top where it flows over. I didn’t do that on this day, but I climbed up the rocks on the side to get a wide shot of the area. The blue/green water was stunning.

Unfortunately, I had to conclude my trip to the RRG and continue on. I plan to get back to the area this summer and do more hiking and check out more of the arches.