Garrett Fisher

Author, Pilot, & Adventurer

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Flight: WY, MT, ID: Yellowstone!

June 11, 2015 by Garrett

It has been two months since moving here, and I finally bothered to go to Yellowstone in the airplane. I realized the situation: fear. I flew through Yellowstone on a crappy photography day in July 2014, and I was shocked to find that the place may as well be an airplane graveyard. Emergency landing locations in some sections of the park are entirely non-existent (how does a nice pine tree sound for a landing spot?), the park is at very high altitude (flight level is 9,500’ to 10,000’ to be not far above the ground), wind seems to be howling nonstop, and the nearest airports are very far. It is a test of will, flight planning, and skill.

So I finally went. It takes an hour to get to the beginning of the park, passing by the Teton Range and Grand Teton National Park. You’ll just have to put up with some crappy, repetitive photos of the Tetons as you humor me on the way to Yellowstone.

The first surprise I had, and that most have, is that the bulk of the park is a plateau. Derived of a giant civilization-destroying super volcano caldera, the park is high up, though only mountainous around 3 sides of it. Inside the rim of mountains is a huge lake, more pine trees than one can fathom, pits of fire and brimstone, holes that belch sulfur (that I could smell from the airplane), tons of waterfalls, and many, many canyons. The thing about Yellowstone is that it is quite simply diverse. One cannot stereotype it; it just is a ton of different things. I did not hit Grand Prismatic Spring, Old Faithful, the Absaroka Mountains, or a lot of other things. The whole affair took four hours battling getting the crap knocked out of me by wind, and that was enough for one day. Its not like I won’t go up there again.

I did get another new lens, this one going from 70 to 300mm, a super telephoto. As you can see, it is a must in this park, though the in flight lens swap is a new routine that I’ll have to get used to.

Fuel was West Yellowstone (arriving just before a passenger airliner), and the flight home was over Targhee Pass at the Montana/Idaho border, down the northeastern corner of Idaho, the Teton Valley in Idaho, over the Snake River Range and up Palisade Reservoir.

Teton Range, just south of Jackson Hole Ski Area
IMG_5121 (43 of 1056)

Teton Range, just north of summit of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort
IMG_5150 (72 of 1056)

The other side of the Tetons….
IMG_5218 (140 of 1056)

Emergency landing options were a 180 degree turn and a glide down a canyon to the valley….
IMG_5267 (189 of 1056) IMG_5291 (213 of 1056)

Other side of Tetons, with Jackson Lake visible
IMG_5370 (292 of 1056)

Snake River, Yellowstone
IMG_5427 (349 of 1056)

Much of Yellowstone looks like this
IMG_5435 (357 of 1056)

Some hot spring
IMG_5483 (405 of 1056)

Lake Yellowstone with Absarokas on horizon (civilization-destroying volcano lies beneath that gentle lake)
IMG_5615 (537 of 1056)

Pelican Valley, Vermillion Springs
IMG_5630 (552 of 1056)

Lower Yellowstone Falls (from directly overhead)
IMG_5746 (668 of 1056)

Lower Yellowstone Falls
IMG_5764 (686 of 1056)

Another hot spring (that it appears nobody hikes to)
IMG_5809 (731 of 1056)

Belching pit of sulphur and brimstone (note to self: poor emergency landing location)
IMG_5859 (781 of 1056)

Gibbon River becomes Madison River (Montana on the horizon)
IMG_5886 (808 of 1056)

Madison Valley, Gallatin Range in background, Montana on horizon
IMG_5956 (878 of 1056)

Targhee Pass, Montana (not in Yellowstone)
IMG_5967 (889 of 1056)

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