Yellowstone — Mt. Washburn Southwest

This camera on the 10,243-foot summit of Mount Washburn faces southwest across the central Yellowstone plateau toward Hayden Valley and the park's caldera. It's a companion view to the northeast-facing Washburn cam, together giving a near-360° survey from one of the highest lookouts in the park. The sweep takes in dense lodgepole forest, the broad valley of the Yellowstone River, and the distant rim of the ancient caldera. The high summit weather is volatile: clear, enormous views one hour and blowing snow or storm cloud the next, in any season. Summer is brief and brilliant up here, with alpine wildflowers and bighorn sheep on the ridgelines; grizzlies feed in the high country on army cutworm moths and whitebark pine seeds. Yellowstone runs on Mountain Time, three hours behind Hawaii. Southwest of Washburn lies Hayden Valley, one of the best wildlife-watching areas in North America — huge bison herds, plus elk, grizzlies, and the wolves that the park famously reintroduced in 1995. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, with its 300-foot Lower Falls, cuts through the landscape just below the mountain.