Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces

Just south of the village of Mammoth (where Tammy and I had a close-up view of an Elk herd) are the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces. The terraces are formed when hot water carrying dissolved limestone is cooled, forcing the limestone to solidify.

The first three pictures are terraces formed from the active spring. The water from the spring had moved into a stand of trees. The steam from the hot water, the dead trees and the colored terraces gave this place quite an otherworldly feel. The fourth picture is of a "dead", bleached out terrace. It is no longer supplied with hot water because the springs have moved.

Morning Glory Pool

On the walk from Upper Geyser Basin to Midway Geyser Basin, the trail takes you past Morning Glory Pool. This is a large hot spring that is a great example of how different water temperatures cause the different colors in the water. The blue water at the center, down towards the bottom of the pool, is the hottest. The more shallow yellow water, towards the edges of the pool, has a lower temperature.

This pool, however, is also a great example of how ignorance can permanently alter our landscape. Because people throw things into the pool, the vent gets clogged and the water temperature decreases in the pool. This results in less of the vivid blue, and more of the yellows and browns. The park service has actually "vacuumed" this pool's vent in an effort to keep it clear of the stuff humanity throws into it.

I never would have imagined that people would think it was okay to throw their trash into something as beautiful as Morning Glory Pool. Sheesh.

Upper Geyser Basin

If you take the time to watch Old Faithful erupt, you might as well take some time to wander around within Upper Geyser Basin. Old Faithful sits on the edge of Upper Geyser Basin, and there are plenty of other geothermal features to see, including other less famous geysers. If you are really into it, then you could hike about a 5 mile loop that starts next to Old Faithful, wanders through Upper Geyser Basin down to Midway Geyser Basin (yeah...there is also a Lower Geyser Basin...but we did not visit that), and then comes all the way back to Old Faithful. That is what Tammy and I did.

One neat thing that the National Park Service did was put little signs up to tell you the name of the geothermal thing you were next to. I tried to take pictures of the sign when I took pictures of the thing, but, alas, I was not consistent. Sometimes I took a picture of the sign first. Sometimes I took a picture of the thing first. Sometimes I took no picture of the sign at all. So, what I ended up with was a bunch of pictures for things whose name I am not too sure about. [Edit: While fixing this post to point at Flickr, I was able to identify what was in the first and third photos. The top photo is of Belgian Pool. The bottom photo is of Spasmodic Geyser.]

Whatever the name of these might be, they are pretty interesting looking. The bluer the color, the hotter the water. The more brown, orange or yellow, the cooler (or "less hot") the water. All of these are located in Upper Geyser Basin.

Old Faithful

I could not imagine visiting Yellowstone National Park and not taking the time to watch Old Faithful erupt. The National Park Service makes it very easy for you: tons of parking, lodging and restaurants within walking distance, schedules posted to help you time your visit, and even benches to sit on while you wait for the show.

Tammy and I planned our trip to Old Faithful so that we would see its eruption in the morning, hopefully early enough to miss the crowds, and then begin walking through the adjacent Upper Geyser Basin in order to see many of the other geothermal features that are neighbors to Old Faithful. Our planning worked out quite nicely, and we also got lucky. We got there early enough to beat the crowds (later in the day, it was very crowded), and managed, quite by accident, to walk up to the geyser viewing area about 10 minutes prior to its eruption.

Here is my proof that I was a good Yellowstone tourist and I took the time to watch Old Faithful erupt.