We had the opportunity to return to Yellowstone National Park last week with some friends.  Some of these friends had never seen the park before.  It was a perfect chance to show off the wonders of one of the nation’s premier national parks to them for the first time.  With the photos we took there, we also revisited the iconic locations post we wrote earlier last month.

This time around the park, we did indeed revisit Old Faithful.  The new visitors needed the chance to see one of the top attractions there for themselves.  We arrived in time for some lunch and getting seats at the viewing station, something we couldn’t do last time running up last minute.

Last time, we spent several minutes past the projected eruption time standing and waiting for the water to spew out.  The anticipation was killer even though the final shot was so worth the wait.  This time, there was little wait time.

This time, there were also beautiful wildflowers in front of the geyser.  I made a point of trying to get them into the photograph.  Thanks to getting a different angle on the iconic and predictable geyser, I was easily able to focus in on the water fountain without worrying about whether or not there would be people visible in the shot.  I got the water and the flowers just like I wanted.

We toured around much of the rest of the park and got to see some beautiful waterfalls and unique volcanic formations.  One of the last crowning treats for us was to see a group of tourists pulled over to the side of the road checking out wildlife.  The wildlife turned out to be some wild elk.  I got out and worked my way to getting this beautiful shot of a male elk with full antlers.

Considering how long the elk spent grazing, it was remarkable that I managed to capture this shot.

Yellowstone National Park continues to be a source of beautiful landscape and fine art photography for us.  We will be happily returning for more in the very near future.  We love iconic locations for landscape photography, don’t you?