Weather: Partly cloudy, occasional showers
41 miles
I was up at 8.15, and after a breakfast of juice and a muffin at the hotel, left. I first stopped in what passed for the centre of Gardiner (essentially a main street with buildings on one side, and Yellowstone on the other), to see whether there was a place that could sell me a new camera battery, as I had been getting some slightly suspect light meter readings the previous day. Mission successfully completed, I continued on, passing through the monumental Roosevelt Arch which spanned the main road into the park (Theodore Roosevelt having been a keen proponent of what became the National Parks Service, and later had a park named after him in North Dakota).
I stopped a few miles into the park at Mammoth Hot Springs, essentially a small town which serves as the park headquarters, as well as providing numerous visitor facilities. I went into the visitor centre to pick up some information above that which I had been given at the park entrance, then made my way across to the lower terraces area.
This is a splendid array of hot springs, but with the unusual property that as the water reaches the surface, it deposits dissolved minerals in the form of fantastic travertine terraces.
I first stopped at the Opal Terrace, a spring which began depositing minerals in 1926 and since then has been growing at a rate of up to a foot a year, creeping ever closer to a nearby house. I then crossed the road to the main terrace area, stopping to look at the bizarre Liberty Cap, a stone column some 37 feet (11m) in height, formed by a now-dormant high-pressure spring.
A series of boardwalks and staircases led around the terraces, the ground being far too unstable to walk on. The surrounds were quite unlike anything I had ever seen before; some plain white, some brightly coloured owing to the presence of heat-loving bacteria thriving as the waters run down the rock faces. In places, some rather sick-looking trees were struggling to exist. According to my guide, the landscape was changing on very short timescales, with springs coming and going every few years, and rates of expansion being such that a tree could easily start out in an area of fertile soil and find itself swamped by limestone within a few decades.
The top of the hill offered excellent views across the Mammoth Hot Springs site, with the terraces in the foreground; in the background the hotel, service buildings, old military buildings (in the years immediately following the foundation of the park in 1872, safety was far from assured and Indian attacks were not unheard of). As a backdrop to the whole were the cliff faces above the nearby Yellowstone River.
At the top of the hill I took a walk along the side of the Upper Terrace Drive, a short loop of road leading to hot springs less closely spaced than in the main terrace area. Most people seemed to be taking the lazy approach and following the route by car, but this seemed barely worth it on a trail around a mile in length.
I made my way back down via further boardwalks in the main terrace area, took a brief look in the shop, then went into the cafeteria for a lunch of a cheeseburger, fries and a very necessary cold drink. While inside I managed to miss a brief but heavy shower, which was over just in time for me to head back to the visitor centre again before returning to the car.
The roads in Yellowstone take the form of two loops, 20-30 miles across, passing close to the main attractions of the park, with link roads leading to the five park entrances. Mammoth is at the northwest corner of the upper loop, while I had accommodation booked in Canyon Village, at the eastern junction of the two loops.
I made my way there by way of Norris Junction, to the south of Mammoth, and stopped in the carpark above its geyser area. A short walk led to a small building with displays describing the formation of the geysers, with many boardwalk trails leading around the basin beyond. The whole Yellowstone area lies above a very thin patch of the earth's crust, and volcanic forces have been far more dramatic in the past -- a huge explosion 630,000 years ago showered the entire continent with dust and left behind a huge caldera. The geothermal features around today result from water heated in rocks below the surface, and take several forms: hot springs, in which water reaches the surface at a fairly constant rate; geysers, in which water hits an underground obstruction and builds up until it turns to steam, forcing cooler water above out as an eruption; fumaroles or steam vents, which are relatively dry but extremely hot and produce only steam; and mud pools, active owing to hot gases bubbling through them from below.
Even without the geysers and hot springs, the landscape was somewhat unusual. The area was surrounded by young trees, having been devastated in 1988 by the wildfires which affected nearly a third of the vast area of the park. The trees appeared strong and healthy, showing that nature can quickly recover from what may initially appear a major disaster.
I stopped by Steamboat Geyser, one of the least predictable geysers in the park, with the timescale between eruptions varying between a few hours and several decades. It had last erupted in April, unseen by human eyes but monitored electronically. As I passed, it was merely steaming gently.
A little further on, I came to Echinus Geyser, set in a large pool of water. The large number of seats around the pool suggested slightly more predictable activity, and a couple of park rangers were discussing the geyser and betting on the time of its next eruption. One was sure it would erupt at or before 5.00, this being the time at which her shift ended. As it was, it sprang to life just thirty seconds after 5.00, much to everyone's amusement. This was a spectacular sight for a couple of minutes, water leaping into the air and clouds of steam everywhere, then almost as suddenly as it had come to life, it stopped again.
I continued around the basin, seeing many other features. I paused at Vixen Geyser, having had it recommended by the rangers. About the size of a kitchen sink, it is one of the most frequent geysers, if not the most spectacular, with eruptions every few minutes. I had but a minute to wait before it came to life, water splashing around violently for thirty seconds or so, then the activity stopped and the water in the pool drained out with a gurgling sound one might expect from a bathtub.
A flat expanse of land at the bottom of the basin was dotted with countless geothermal features and rivers of water in fantastic colours, bright oranges and greens, again due to heat-loving bacterial populations.
I left around 6.15 and drove the 12 miles across to Canyon Junction, just outside the village. I stopped in the huge village car park and went into the accommodation office to collect my room key and instructions as to how to find it.
My room took the form of a ``Pioneer Cabin'', a simple yet comfortable room with private bathroom in a cabin dating from the 1950s, its external appearance reminding me of temporary classrooms at school. The cabins were clustered in groups of about six, along tree-lined roads with plentiful parking. I was a little surprised to find patches of snow still extant in some of the shadier spots among the trees. I spent a while settling into the room, in which I would be staying the next three nights, then headed back to the village for dinner, a walk of five minutes or so.
I dined in the cafeteria, having a salad followed by prime rib of beef, extremely good. Afterwards I took a look around the nearby shop, selling gifts and provisions, then went for a walk out in search of somewhere with a little less artificial light in the hope of having a good look at the night sky. Unfortunately light cloud appeared to be filling the sky, and I returned to the cabin and after considering plans for the next day, went to bed.