Today we rose to a glorious sunny day in Yellowstone and we decided to head up to the north end of the park to visit Mammoth Hot Springs, one of the main thermal features in the Park. It is quite a ride from where we are staying to Mammoth – some 50 plus miles – but the scenery and wild life sighting makes it all worthwhile. The snow is piled high at the side of the roads, often several feet deep, but as we approach Mammoth at the north end of the Park the elevation is lower so by the time we get there the snow has all but disappeared.
The Mammoth area is one of the most developed areas of the Yellowstone, as well as the hotel and shops there are a several other buildings that are closely associated with the history of the Park. These are the barracks built for the troops who were installed here when Yellowstone was made the country’s first National Park, with a mission of protecting the Park’s wildlife and resources in the face of determined poachers (who to be fair had traditionally exploited the areas resources!). Anyway the troops are long gone and the buildings are now used by the Park Service as administration buildings, including the Visitor Centre.
The main attraction here is the hot springs. They have been rising up out of the ground from time immemorial. Unlike other areas of Yellowstone these springs are not laced with sulphur so there is no smell, but they do contain deposits of calcite which have been laid down over the millennia to form tiered terraces tens of feet high over the side of the mountain. These terraces are spectacular, and are at various stages of evolution. The springs in this area are forever changing. Some stop after many years of terrace building whilst others start up overnight. Where springs have dried up the terraces start to under go a transformation, initially turning a dazzling white (reminiscent of the Taj Mahal) and then in time a duller grey colour. These “skeletons” of old springs are exposed to the elements and without the renewing power of a flowing spring they are eroded by the weathering extremes of Yellowstone, are turned to dust and return to the earth from whence they came. In contrast to these dead springs there are the active hot springs! Here the steaming waters continue to build new terraces. The colour of these terraces are stained with yellows, browns and oranges marking the presence of tiny micro-organisms called Thermophiles, which thrive in these steaming spring waters.From the bottom of the mountain there are walkways that wind their way up past the springs old and new. The newer, active springs are the most interesting with their flowing waters glinting in the sunlight and clear blue pools, but the architecture of the older terraces are still pleasing to the eye. As we get about half way up we bump into the English couple we met a few days earlier at Jenny Lake in the Tetons. If that was not coincidence enough a few steps further
on we meet two young ladies whom Emily and Jack had befriended on the campsite we stayed at in Glendale, Utah when visiting Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. These two, originating from Michigan, are on an adventure, camping out the back of a car on a six week tour of the West, having finished school. Since we had left them 2 weeks earlier they had trekked up the West Coast through Oregon up to Seattle and then across to Yellowstone. It was an amazing coincidence for us to be here in the same spot at the same time – such events as these, which seem to happen with relative frequency in one’s lifetime can turn you into a believer of Fatalism if you are not careful. Anyway after exchanging pleasantries – or in Emily’s case flying leaps and hugs – we move on. At the top of the walkway – which is quite a steep climb, which is challenging at this altitude we reach Canary Spring which is the most active and splendid of the springs in the Mammoth area. This spring is flowing at a tremendous rate and cascades downwards hundreds of feet, it is truly beautiful and worth the climb (for the less adventurous there is a car park near the summit). We stay and admire this for a few minutes until the peace is broken by the arrival of a tour bus of Japanese tourists.After another fabulous day we head back down south towards the Fishing Bridge Campground. As we get close Mark decides to go back down the road to where we had seen the bears the previous day. As we approach the area we see lots of cars on the side of the road with people out, pointing cameras and spotting scopes up to the hillside. We hurriedly park our car and join them. Our reward is to see a female grizzly with two cubs 2 or 3 hundred yards away climbing a hillside – whereas the day before we had needed a spotting scope to see them today they could easily be seen by the naked eye. What a joy! Last time we came to Yellowstone we saw no bears – in 2 days we had seen several. Happy now we go back to our campsite.
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