Saturday in the Park. Day 12

It was 28 degrees F this morning, but it soon warmed up to the high 70's. We took a ride up to Mammoth Hot Springs and around the loop.

The Yellowstone caldera has numerous other hot spots including Mammouth Hot Sptings, Norris Basin, and West Thumb. There are boiling hot spots in the Yellowstone river and along the banks of Lake yellowstone. the Norris basin is a couple of square miles of bubbling, steaming fields of hot, white silica, chugging fumeroles, clear, aquamarine springs, feeding brown and gold-colored streams, bubbling mud pots, and little spurting mini-geyesers. there is a series of boardwalks around them. Keep your pets on a leash and don't step off the boardwalk. It's like hell on earth. It's an amazing place.

And the smell! Hydrogen sulfide: it's like rotten eggs.

First we came to Yellowstone lake, then up to the Yellowstone River canyon, which is deep and craggy and has some spectacullar falls. Then over to Mammouth Hot springs. Mammoth Hot Springs used to be Fort Yellowstone until after the park service was formed and took over around 1917 or so. There is a hotel, a service station, and a community of barracks and residences now used by rangers and employees.

Down to Norris Basin area, already mentioned. Then back to old faithful via the lake.

We have seen elk, bison, and foxes. the elk wandered around in Mammouth Hot Springs eating tghe grass on the lawns, not 50 yards from a picnic table where a family was having lunch. They seem used to the people. They are like the mules in Oatman, Arizona, but that's another story.

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Part of trip: Yellowstone

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