My first visit to Yellowstone
In July 1994, my parents, my sister, and I (she 9 and I 11) squeezed into our overloaded minivan, leaving behind our tranquil home in Indiana and driving across the country to the wild west of Wyoming. For two weeks we backpacked in the granite wonderland of the Tetons. We capped off our adventure with a few days in Yellowstone National Park. Having spent my childhood thus far in the Midwest, this was an eye-opening and somewhat classic American family national park adventure. It was also a rather momentous point in my life, since it was on this trip that I caught my life-long affliction: the insatiable thirst for wide open spaces, the natural world, exploration, and adventure. It was also the first time I had ever had my own camera—a disposable cardboard Kodak I spotted next to the chocolate bars at a gas station, begged my mom to buy me, and over the next couple of weeks carefully rationed off the 24 exposures on various bison, birds, flowers, clouds, and campsite vistas. Of all the family adventures we went on as I was growing up, our few days in Yellowstone are my most memorable. I knew I'd be back.

The family van. We put over 200,000 miles on this classic Dodge Caravan (you don't see those wood panels anymore!) until it finally conked out at a Shell station in the rain in Kent.

The Abegg family at the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We never were the types to dress up for our Christmas card photos.

I was pretty proud of this shot of a bison I took out of the van window.

Budding bird photographer in action. Gibbon River below.

My sister and me at the Clepsydra Geyser.

A bit about Yellowstone
Established in 1872, Yellowstone was America's first national park. Its 3,468 square miles of lakes, canyons, rivers, and mountains cross the borders of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Yellowstone is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the continental United States. Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened; and the vast forests and grasslands also include unique species of plants. The park is home to grizzly bears, wolves, bison, and elk. But perhaps what it is most famous for is the its extraordinary geology. Yellowstone is, without a doubt, the most geological fascinating place on this planet. Here, the forces that elsewhere lie deep within the earth seem close enough to touch. Geysers, hot springs, and fumaroles—created by superheated water rising to the surface—are evidence for the seething caldron that lies beneath the park. This geologic hotspot has caused three stupendous volcanic eruptions in the last two million years, covering thousands of square miles with ash and affecting the global climate for years thereafter. There's no evidence that Yellowstone will erupt anytime soon, but one only has to watch a geyser shoot a jet of water hundreds of feet high to realize that the area is far from inactive.

Yellowstone is probably the most popular—or at least the most iconic—national park in the United States. It is estimated that nearly one-third of the US population has visited the park, and each year more than three million people roll through its gates. The vast majority of Yellowstone visitors flock to the park in June-August (most roads in the park are snowcovered between November and late spring). There are numerous recreational activities, and paved roads provide close access to the major geothermal areas as well as some of the lakes and waterfalls. Campgrounds, hotels, visitor centers, museums, restaurants, gift shops, ATMs, and espresso stands abound, and in the summer the hoards of cars and people are endless. For a more natural experience, fall is an especially great time to visit the park. The crowds have diminished, most businesses and campgrounds are still open, and on crisp mornings the air is filled with the bugling of elk. Then, the park is surely a photographer's paradise.

So I had to go back.

Making my way back to Yellowstone
In June 2008, fourteen years after our family road trip to Yellowstone, I was back. But it was no more than a one-day blitz trip. I was at the tail end of a 15,000-mile birding road trip around the country, the weather was gloomy, and my poor red Subaru was badly in need of repair after hitting a deer in North Dakota. A few photos of mud bubbles, a Yellowstone coffee mug for my parents, and the wonders of Yellowstone left for another day.

That another day finally arrived in September 2011. I had just completed a bike trip in Glacier National Park, and with Yellowstone's northern reaches just on the other end of the state, it seemed too close to pass by. I could think of at least four reasons it was a primo time to visit Yellowstone. (1) It was just around the time of the post-Labor Day dissipation of summer crowds. (2) There was a stellar Indian summer weather forecast for the whole area. (3) I had a few more weeks until the Fall Quarter—and hence my PhD studies—started up at the University of Washington. And (4) I needed to make good use of the $80 National Park pass I had bought the week before.

For a full week, I frolicked about Yellowstone. I had no specific agenda, other than to drive wherever my car wanted to go and photograph anything and everything that captured my attention. And this time, my Canon 50D SLR camera was slightly better than a 24-exposure cardboard Walmart special. I shot with three lenses: wide angle 10-22mm, zoom 24-105mm, and telephoto 400mm. I took so many photos that one day, after 1500 images of geysers, my left eye got all red and swollen from repeatedly being exposed to the slightly higher concentration of sulfurous gases that would get trapped behind the viewfinder as I took a photo. With photography being a primary reason for the trip, I needed a place to stay that had a plug for my computer and camera batteries. For the first half of the trip, I stayed at the Yellowstone RV Park in Gardiner, just outside the north entrance to the park; for $25 a night, they even had wireless internet. For the second half of the trip, when I was focusing specifically on the Old Faithful area, I based myself at the Old Faithful Lodge; here, for the $11.95 it cost to connect to internet each day, I camped out in the lobby when processing photos and slept in my car at night.