Specimen Ridge Blowing Snow

The prevailing wind on the Yellowstone Plateau is from the southwest.  When an air mass moves across the central plateau and bumps into 9000-foot Specimen Ridge, it sweeps the top of the ridge with high winds.  Loose snow is blown spinning and tumbling over the ridge, dropping down on the leeward side like a spray from ocean waves.  This spindrift scurries over the surface of the packed snow, swirling off the ridgetop like cloaked figures hurrying to the quieter valley floor, then vanishing like smoke.