Mammoth Hot Springs

The main roads in Yellowstone are shaped like a figure 8 with an upper loop and a lower loop.  We tentatively planned to do day trips in the car over the next week for the upper loop, the lower loop, Beartooth Hwy, and possibly the Grand Tetons.  We took nearly 1,000 pictures and videos.  There is a lot to see in Yellowstone. 

To keep the posts from being so long, I am going to break them up into shorter sections.  Hope you enjoy the ride along with us!

On Thursday morning, we began our tour of Yellowstone by driving through the Roosevelt Arch, the original entrance to Yellowstone.  (The below picture was taken on one of our last days into Yellowstone.  The first picture did not turn out very well because it was taken through the dirty windshield of our car.)

 

After driving through the Arch, we were welcomed by the typical National Park Service sign.

 

The entrance fee to Yellowstone is $25 but with our America the Beautiful pass our cost was $0.00!  We were also greeted by a small herd of elk right at the entrance.  (And they were there to greet us just about every morning!)

 

The moon was still in the sky this morning (and you know how I like to get the moon in my pictures).

 

The first placed we stopped was Mammoth Hot Springs. 

 

Because the temperature was a little cooler in the mornings, you could see the steam rising from the springs.

 

This formation is called "Liberty Cap" is 37 feet tall and was created by the minerals from a now dormant hot spring. 

 

As we walked around, we saw several stone formations of now dormant hot springs...

 

...and some more active ones.

We saw this little chipmunk on the walkway in front of us...

 

...and what looked like a lizard.

As we got closer, we realized it was a dead root coming out of the ground.  We called it a "petrified lizard."  :)

At Mammoth Hot Springs, the water does not get as hot as is in the other thermal areas which is why there are no geysers at Mammoth Hot Springs.  However, any time we were in a thermal area, the smell of sulphur was always around.  Also, the park has walkways in almost all of the hot springs or geyser areas with warning signs everywhere about it being a thermal area.

 

The hot springs below was named "Palette Springs":

The trees around the hot springs areas were always dead and kind of spooky-looking.

 

 

Then, we were "spooked" by this bull snake crawling his way towards the walkway. 

 

 

 

He has the markings of a rattlesnake but we could tell by his head and tail that he was not.  Even still, we didn't want to have anything to do with him and just made sure he didn't climb up on the walkway with us!

Further down the walkway were more formations that formerly were active hot springs.

 

The landscape of Mammoth Hot Springs is continually changing. 

 

The springs we saw here today...

...will probably just be stone formations years from now.