Mammoth Springs Upper Terrace Drive

Mammoth Springs is the main feature of Yellowstone that drew us to this trip. The steamy, bubbly stuff happens because rain and melting snow seeps into the ground and very close to the surface, vaporizes because of the intense thermal heat from the center of the earth. This causes centuries of hot springs, producing these grotesque shapes. The colors happen because of bacteria that has become suited to the high heat.
In Mammoth Springs, the areas of this geological phenomena are the lower region where we could walk. This was photographed last evening. An upper loop of even more incredible sights are seen below. Many geologists predict a future earthquake and eruption here that might destroy all life on earth. Didn't happen on our watch!

We took this picture at 9 AM before we left for the day. We wanted to capture the morning steam that rises from this stuff.

I can't add any words to these -- just enjoy the colors.

All the next pictures are of this monstrosity -- described here.

But by now, it's 6 PM. We had already explored the lower terrace -- yesterday, and now we're going upstairs, so to speak.

This would make a nice post card, wouldn't it.

This was the end of our day. We had our drink, dinner and went to bed. But, the next morning, we stopped here to look at a piece of the upper terrace we missed on the one-way loop. We'll add it here.

. . . the picture above. I think it was worth it. Didn't lose a hat.

All that steam seems to be a morning event.

Elaine, disappearing in the gloom ahead. They should have shot an episode of X-Files here.

I'm trying to show these pictures in chronological order of when they were taken. But two of us were taking pics.

This was an oriental tour group, some wearing what looks like sars masks.

This is the end of that "short" trail we failed to cover in yesterday's visit to the Mammoth springs upper terrace. I'm sorry this isn't very well annotated, but the views simply came too fast for us to record. I would like someone to invent a camera that comes with a built in GPS unit that adds to the picture file the exact coordinates of the picture as well as the direction the picture is pointing. That would have helped!

The loop we cover here, the next morning, is the orange path, the handicapped path, and the paths from Cupid Spring to Canary Spring.

Another candidate for a post card -- below.

I had to lean way over the rail above above the muck to get . . .

These colors are caused by bacteria that has evolved over the centuries and are capable of life in these extreme tempuratures.

The picture above was an 8x telephoto of the one below.

I would love to see that time lapse film this is taking.

It's 9:30 A.M. and we are leaving Mammoth Springs on our way to the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone National Park.

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