All the Rivers
Five o’clock in the morning is too early to get up anymore for a road trip, so we set our sights on leaving by 10:00 a.m. Last minute details took us a little longer than expected.
But at last we were on our way from California to Yellowstone National Park.
It was the fall of 2021.
A few days later we were up before that five o’clock hour leaving West Yellowstone to photograph Canary Springs before dawn. We wandered around in the darkness looking for a place to park and a perfect spot to photograph. Dawn came more slowly now that October had arrived. Gradually the sky lightened and the filmy steams rose from the hot springs. The temperature was cold this autumn morning. Underground rivers feed the hot springs and geysers in Yellowstone, and they are anything but cold! That morning they fed my soul with unutterable beauty as light poured over the mountain and lit up the hot springs.
A day later we were exploring the Firehole which flows through the park. The fishermen were out early, shortly after dawn. We followed the river as it meandered through the valley. This river, too, was infiltrated in places by the water from geysers spilling into the river. On the way back to West Yellowstone, we watched a rarely visited geyser erupt and spill into the river.
As we made our way south through the park, the sky grew darker, and big drops of rain began to fall. By the time we reached the Yellowstone Park gate and the entrance to the Grand Tetons, the river in the sky was pouring down upon us. As we drove further south, the clouds grew dark and heavy even upon the mountaintops, which stretched for miles. The sun cast shafts of light where it found a hole in the cloud cover, inspiring us to stop and photograph. The shafts flowed like rivers of light down the mountain slopes and across the valley floor. The effect was surreal.
The next day poured sheets of rain, but the day after invited us back outdoors. We headed to the shores of Jenny Lake and stood on the beach photographing the river of stillness as water met sky at the horizon. Meanwhile soft rivers of water vapor moved slowly across the lake, obscuring the mountains on the other side. A cloud had nestled across the lake, weaving its way along rocks, mountain peaks, and lake, like a river gently concealing and revealing.
There are places along the Snake River where we found marvelous views of the river and the Tetons. Up at one particular place, the river takes a horseshoe bend and the mountains rise up in the distance. The day we were there, the river was shining and mighty clouds were amassing near the base of the mountains. Light, water, and clouds formed the currents where these rivers came together. Slow moving, soft, a peace emanating from the whole.
The trees had turned a golden yellow as we headed south into Colorado. We found ourselves amid snow descending heavily on the way to Aspen. We wound our way along a river. The river of snow fell heavily, then more lightly as we made our way down the mountain pass. By the time we reached our hotel just outside Aspen, a river of water was pouring from the sky. The snow was blanketing the mountain peaks as autumn reminded us that winter was coming.
In the morning, the mountains were covered in a thick layer of glistening white snow, and golden aspens fluttered in the wind. Huge rivers of icy air blasted our faces at the base of the mountains along Castle Creek Road. The next morning, well before dawn, we walked out of the parking lot onto a path to the Maroon Bells. A winter constellation, Orion, was still shining in the sky. Dawn arrived like a slowly moving river of the softest light. A faint reflection of the mountains and the aspen appeared in the lake below the Bells. The cliffs around us grew more colorful, but the Bells were still coated with the first snowfall of the season. A slow moving river of brilliant light began to light up the tallest peaks. The sun had risen at the Bells!
