6/2/11 – Yellowstone National Park

These "colorful" signs were posted all over the place

Our first full day in Yellowstone, we planned to drive north on the park road past the Norris junction all the way to the Mammoth Hot Spring Terraces and the northern entrance to the park. As we drove, we pulled over at each geyser basin along the way to get out and walk the boardwalk that encircled the springs and pools of the basin. These boardwalks were constructed to keep visitors primarily from destroying the delicate cave-like formations that exist around the park’s features, but also to keep them from having the chance mis-step crack through the thin calcite crust that covers the flesh-rending thermal activity below the surface.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Driving through the park, we kept switching through to very different worlds- one that was still very covered with tall packs of snow and ice, reluctant to allow spring to get a foothold. The other were these places where the earth was reaching up through the dirt, boiling water and mud, burning holes through the dirt and killing off the trees when they get in the way. These places you could always smell the sulfur as it steamed and bubbled, sometimes more caustic than battery acid, dissolving the rocks around you.

Check out the height of the built up travertine rock!

The most impressive were the formations of the Mammoth Hot Springs, an entire mountainside of formations from the various hot springs that tumbled down its slope. These formations had built cascading terraces; some as large as baths some so small that they looked like the finest ripples in sand- each one damming enough water for the minerals it carried to deposit and build the walls higher. We had seen similar formations when visiting Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Here in the open air, most strikingly the formations from inactive hot springs. Although the entire hillside was covered, only in a few places was water still trickling down feeding the living bacteria and thermophiles that gave the living formations their brilliant colors. In this area, you could see visibly how quickly the earth was changing. In some places, the rock had formed killing the pine trees and then burying them up to their tops in rock before they could rot or be removed. Along the boardwalk, signs denoted that in some places, as much as a foot of the rock called Travertine was deposited every year!

We loved the old sign above Park's in Gardiner

Running low on supplies, we exited the park through the north gate and drove to the nearby town of Gardiner where we visited the local fly shop and grocery store. Beneath a beautiful old hand-made sign, Parks Fly Shop was on Main Street. Inside the shop, the air was full of the smells of the furs and feathers used to tie flies, and noticeably quiet- a sound that is likely in short supply during the right time of year. The shop reminded me of my grandfather’s office (also where he ties his flies). The two gentlemen in the shop were more than happy to chew the fat about the current fishing conditions for a spell while Sam napped in the warm car. With fresh groceries, a map, and a plan, we headed back into the park stopping briefly to buy a shower in the Norris Junction Hotel. Because most of the hotels scattered every 80 miles through the park have community facilities for each hall (because they were built prior to the advent of all rooms having private bathrooms) the park never built shower facilities in the public campgrounds.

As we finished preparing dinner, we were hit by an unusual (to us) snow shower which laid a thin blanket of snowflakes shaped like small pieces of Styrofoam on the ground around camp and the roof of our car. As the snow drifted down from the clouds, each flake was so large and round that they could be felt as it pelted your face and clothing. After a brief phone call home, we received word that the rest of the world was in fact still normal and that the temperatures in Charlotte had been in the high 90’s all week with unbearable humidity. Hopefully we would find some sweet middle ground once we reached Colorado.