Cody Redmon - Photoblog

This view of Emigrant Peak is from along an old access road that is currently being used to divert primary “traffic” after someone crashed into a bridge on the main road and rendered it unstable. Near its beginning, the dirt track winds up onto a hill at an impressive outcropping called Point of Rocks. From this vantage you can see across the valley to the mountains and coming storm, several miles beyond. The thin cliff layer that runs through the foreground is actually one facing of a massive geological fault that runs down the heart of Paradise Valley. Rising one hundred feet or more above the adjacent land, it is a reminder of the natural forces at work in and around Yellowstone National Park. Just 30 minutes south of this spot is the northern rim of a volcanic caldera which measures 34 x 45 miles across. When we hear the term ‘volcano’, we think of Kilauea, Mount St. Helens or Vesuvius…single peaks that form a cone or spout for the heat, pressure and energy. In the case of Yellowstone, however, entire mountain ranges form the mouth, recently prompting the scientific term ’supervolcano’.