Lamar Valley, Yellowstone
About this photograph
This bittersweet natural wonder is named Morning Glory after the flower it once resembled. Now the brilliant blue water is surrounded by rings of gold, orange, and green. Over the decades, visitors threw thousands of pounds of coins, rocks, logs, and trash into the spring, some of which became lodged in the vents, restricting circulation and helping lower the water temperature. As the pool cooled, heat-loving microorganisms expanded toward its center, creating the yellow and orange colors visible today. In that sense, Morning Glory Pool carries two stories at once. It is a display of nature’s extraordinary color and resilience, but it is also a reminder that even something powered by the immense forces beneath Yellowstone can be altered by countless small human actions. The journey to the pool follows Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin beyond Old Faithful, through a landscape where steam rises from the earth and the ground itself seems alive. At the end waits this improbable flower of blue, green, gold, and rust; a beautiful survivor whose changed colors preserve both a warning and a second chance. This fine-art photograph brings the vivid color and fascinating history of Yellowstone into a living room, office, cabin, study, or national-park-inspired gallery wall.
