MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS :WHERE'S THE WATER?

9/23

   The last time we were in Yellowstone, we saw Old Faithful and the Norris Geyser Basin which I loved. However, I somehow lost all of my Yellowstone photos-- seems to be my thing-- and they were some of my favorites. So it was with great anticipation that I entered the Mammoth Hot Springs area in the hopes of getting some more pics of geothermal activity, which fascinates me.

   No elk in the village today and no Xian in the car-- I'm sure he was glad to stay “home” and sleep on the bed! The hot springs area is just outside the village, and it covers a lot of ground. The upper and lower terraces are joined by a series of  boardwalks and many steps.

   It's too dangerous to walk on the ground, even though it looks plenty safe. People have been known to fall through the thin crust and plunge into scalding hot water below. And more than a few larger animals, I'm betting. We saw some tracks. 

   It probably takes a minimum of 2 hours to see it all; we spent the time but didn't cover all of the ground, I'm certain.  The first stop was the Minerva Terrace formation.

 Maybe you've seen it or the famous pictures of it, steaming water flowing over beautiful rocks of varied oranges and rusts. About ten years ago you could still see this, but a couple of years ago there was an earthquake, which sent the water into different places. This is a characteristic of the hot springs anyway, and the water may appear here again and it may not. There's plenty of it on the other side now! Some is now starting to come up in the village. Anyway, the water stopped flowing over Minerva Terrace which turned white and is so bright as to blind the eyes! Actually, it didn't just "turn" white. That's the color of the travertine, of which these formations consist. The color comes from the microorganisms living in the water, so if there's no water flowing over the travertine, there's no color. In this photo, there is a small amount of water streaming down, and hence the colors.

   I'm sure we spent over two hours at Mammoth. My favorite place was over on the other side near the Canary Hot Spring. I absolutely love the textures on the bottom of the shallow “lake” and could have spent hours photographing it. I'LL BET some wonderful abstract paintings, pastels and pottery could come out of this. I think I'll just post a bunch of my favorite pics and let them speak for themselves. By the way,the patterns and textures are formed by the minerals in the water. As the water cools, minerals drop down, and the action of the water over the minerals causes the most beautiful of patterns. Organic matter-- like the pine branches- also fall in and are coated with the minerals.

   Leaving the hot springs area, we headed back, stopping along the way to photograph some elk in the river. Once down on flat land we stopped into the Association building where Bill just happened to run into the executive director, who took us on a tour of the renovated building. Bill had some ideas to exchange with her regarding Native American participation in the park, and she seemed quite glad for the exchange. A really neat lady.

  We aren't happy to be leaving the park tomorrow- even a week isn't long enough, but two days? We envy the couple we met who are staying for a month!!! The screaming face below says it all! WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

YELLOWSTONE/BLACKTAIL

9/22

A later start to the day than we had planned, but a nice day  nonetheless. We stopped that the Yellowstone Association park store before beginning our trip into the park. It's a newly renovated building, which once was a mercantile store built in 1904. It's situated just before going through the Roosevelt Arch ( north entrance ) into the park, and at that time, it carried just about everything you can imagine. Now, it houses offices for the association, serves as an information center and has a very nice gift store. The staff is extremely knowledgeable and friendly. We got the skinny on where to find wildlife. Oh, to see wolves-- that's our hope!

  The weather is wonderful out here, and the park still has many visitors, so traffic can be a bit snarly. Our first glimpse of wildlife was in the little town of mammoth hot springs, where elk grazed everywhere from the town hall, to the lawns. They were oblivious to the traffic that was jamming up, and some of them simply lounged on the lawns.

   Of course, this got Xian going, and we were rapidly closing the windows and pulling away from the crowds as a ranger came over, probably to tell us to move the Voice Box on!

    The day was spent mainly in the area called Black Tail, and though we didn't see a lot of wildlife, we did see some gorgeous country, stopping many times for photos, and to give Xian some play time. What fascinated me most was the sun shining behind the aspen trees and setting them afire.

   Sometimes appearing in an entire stand, sometime contrasting with the deep green of the pines, the aspens shimmered and trembled in flaming gold-- took my breath away. I kept taking pictures and more pictures, but the camera simply did not capture what I saw in the way that I saw it. Look at the photos and then pump up the gold about ten times!! (I think  Bill has some better photos which I can show you later.)

We saw plumes of smoke from a lightning fire in an area called Antelope-- the road has been closed there for almost a week.

   It's always sad to see the burned areas in a forest, but I have to remember that what comes up as a result of more sunlight provides food for animals who will return to that area. again. Trees reseed quickly. Lodgepole pines in particular germinate quickly after a fire. Lodgepoles are thick in this area from a fire in 1988. There's also a stark beauty to what's left behind.

   And these bare poles, a lot having fallen, provide food for insects and a habitat for small mammals and birds. In the life of a forest, fire is a regular visitor, and a new Phoenix arises from the ashes every time

     On the way down the mountain, we came upon a sheep jam, so we jammed in and took a few pictures ourselves.

The sheep, a few buffalo plus the elk were the extent of our wildlife for the day. No wolves. ( Sigh)

Ooops, I was wrong! Look at the wildlife I found in the sagebrush!!