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The story behind the photo: This photo was edited and
appears as the central backdrop of the logo for the site. Looking
from an overlook in the Eastern part of the park coming out of the Absarokas,
we took this shot after a drive taking notes on the road out the East Entrance
of the Park. On our way back towards sundown, we saw a little road
that drives to an overlook of the Lake. We took a series of panoramas,
and this one is one of our favorites of that series. The mountains
on the left are the Red Range, the most prominent mountian being Mount
Sheridan on the left extreme, which rises to a height of just over 10,000
feet. The lake is vast and, in this cloudy, pre-dusk setting, appears
gray. Lake Yellowstone, as I suppose many bodies of water are, is
a body of many colors depending on the time and weather. It can be
blue, black, gray, green, even orange and pink. What is amazing,
of course, is the sheer altitude of this very large lake, of which you
only see a portion. Also, you can see some of the islands in the
lake. In the old days on one of those islands people took tours out
to one of the islands to see some of the elk, which seems a little ridiculous
if you know anything about Yellowstone. These elk were very mistreated;
some observers saw that these elk were so hungry that they were actually
reduced to eating meat that the cruel caretakers were giving them.
It is ironic that a land so pristine has stories so haunting within it.
A true appreciation of this land must come face-to-face with how haunting
it has often been both naturally and artificially. However pristine
things may seem, there is always something more going on. These are
the things I think about as I look at this photo.
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