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Published: September 8th 2008
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This morning, I silently curse Uncle Tom. Amazingly, neither one of us has sore muscles, but we each have a hip that is cranky from the walk yesterday. It is cold and wet again today. I have included a picture of the rainbow at the foot of the falls we saw courtesy of Uncle Tom.
We saw some crows walking on a steaming hill that was funny, because they were walking really, really fast! We headed up to an area called Fountain Paint Pot Trail, where we saw more bubbling mud pots, fumaroles, spasm geyser (cool name), and a raven that was burying some food in the warm ground. Steve said he was having a Luau. Always the comedian, that guy.
Along Firehold Lake Drive, there was a water-filled hole called Firehole Spring. Long ago, the native Indians thought that the under-water spurts of air looked like fire, so that is how it got its name. We couldn't capture it in a picture, but it was true. There would be several bursts of underwater bubbles that looked like fire, then they would all burst to the surface in a rush of bubbling. It was pretty interesting.
We walked
around another area called Midway Geyser Basin, which was another place with varicolored bacteria making colorful patterns around deeper hot spring pools. The wind is bitterly cold, and our noses run almost as much as the springs.
At Bisuit Basin, there once were formations that looked like bisuits. An earthquake blew away the formations, but Shell Geyser and Jewel Geyser perform for us. Sapphire pool is pretty with bright yellow bacterial mats flowing from it, and Mustard Spring bubbles continuously.
Al Black Sand Basin, the black sand is from old volcanic activity - most of it is covered now with plain old dirt. Emeral Pool is true to its name, and the sun comes out for a few minutes so we can get pictures. Cliff Geyser erupts every few minutes from across Iron Spring Creek. Sunset Lake displays its signature colors around its edge.
Then, we climb into the car and return to Geyser Hill, by Old Faithful to have a look at all the other things we didn't see yesterday. Plume Geyser obliged by erupting for us, Anemone emties and fills and erupts a few feet, and repeats this every 15 minutes or so. It is
all pretty, but it is so cold that we decide not to walk the rest of the trail. Instead, we head into Old Faithful Lodge to get a hot drink to warm our hands, and get into the car to head towards West Thumb.
West Thumb is the westernmost "thumb" of Yellowstone Lake. It is a volcanic crater - very deep with thermal activity still at the bottom. Even so, this lake is extremely cold. Along one edge of the lake, there is an area with colorful bubbling and still pools. Abyss pool, black pool, and funnel pool are here. A bull elk decides to round up his herd which have strayed into the hot springs area. Did I mention that this is rutting season for elk, and the males are very agressive? We try to get his picture, but he charges the crowd, and the ranger yells for everyone to run!
At the Mud Volcano area, we don't see much bubbling mud, but churning caldren (wildly bubbling, muddy water), and Dragon's Mouth Spring are interesting. The hot steam and roaring sound coming out of the cave at Dragon's Mouth makes it easy to imagine that a dragon
really lives in there. The sulphur smell is very strong here.
Just an FYI....if you decide to visit Yellowstone, give yourself at least a week to see everything. We tried to do it in 4 days, and we are rushing from place to place (I didn't heed the advice of others). {:o
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