Mammoth Hot Springs

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5 Jul 2016: Mammoth Hot Springs is located in the Northwest quadrant of the Park. There are two circular routes in the Park, one on top of the other, almost like the figure 8. From these other roads strike outwards towards the park boundaries. It has not been unusual for us to travel over 200 miles in an afternoon. The weather is most agreeable. Today it is 71 degrees and the low is expected to be in the lower 40s. We routinely get thundershowers in the afternoon but they last only 15-30 minutes. They are very localized and if you are on the road you quickly drive out from under them. No matter what you wear you'll find yourself putting something on or taking something off. When driving, I've occasionally had to switch from air conditioniner to heat. While at the Mammoth Springs grocery store one customer was heard to ask if the wildlife came out in the rain, as if they had a place to go into. It sounds humorous but that is why so many people come here; to learn about the geology, wildlife and geography of the region.
Ignorance is not always humorous or harmless. Last year a three year seasonal employee was killed by a bear. He did everything wrong. He hiked alone without bear spray. He went off the established trail. He was wearing ear buds and so was not paying attention to the sounds in the forest. He wasn 'T making any sounds to announce his presence. When he startled a sow and,her two cubs, she attacked and killed him. She and her cubs fed on the body. The bear was killed. The Cubs would've been killed too except a zoo offered to take them at the last minute. Here, you are the intruder and not at the top of the food chain.

Mammoth Hot Springs is a gigantic mound of minerals. Once dissolved in the hot water below the surface, they drop out of solution when the water emerges and cools. The minerals then layer upon each other building strange and beautiful shapes and formatikns, resembling the travertine pools at Havasupi. Furthermore, these springs are populated by micro-organisms called Thermoacidophiles. They thrive in the hot, acidic environment and lend color to the mineral formations they inhabit. There are many species that rely on varying degrees of heat and,ph so you see a variety of colors among the white calcium carbonate that usually prevails. There are just little seeps of hot water emerging from the rock and a little steam perhaps but over time the results are quite impressive.
On the way we passed a place called Obsidian Cliff. In an earlier post I stated that Native American tribes from Washint on State to South Dakota had visited or inhabited Yellowstone. According to an Atlas of Yellowstone, the following 26 tribes have ancient and/or modern association with Yellowstone. Coleville, Umatilla, Coeur d'Alene, Nez Perce, Salish, Kootenai, Blackfeet, Shoshone-Bannock, Northern Arapaho, Eastern Shoshone, Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Gros Ventre and Assiniboine, Assiniboine and Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Oglala Sioux, Cheyenne River Sioux, Rosebud Sioux, Turtle Mountain band of the Chippewa Indians, Spirit Lake Sioux, Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux, Lower Brule Sioux, Crow Creek Sioux, Flandreau Santee Sioux, Yankton Sioux.

Source:Atlas of Yellowstone, W. Andrew Marcus et al, ed. University of California Press, Berkley and Los Angeles Californiacopyright 2012 University of Oregon

All should agree that this special place has played a prominent,role in the lives of those who have gone before us as well as those who partook in the discovery anddevelopmenT of the West.

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