We left a Porcelain Basin and moved further. It was
close to midday and the chilly
morning
was replaced by a nice and warm, almost Summer, day. We stopped here and
there for just a few minutes and returned back on the road.
There
are a lot of waterfalls in Yellowstone Park and every one of them look
unique. The next one we found on the side of the road was striped.
The water there was broken into dozens of tiny streams and looked like a zebra. Also there were a lot of dried and charcoaled trees on the slopes. It was another reminder of the big fire that happened in 1988, when the fire destroyed almost 40% of all park trees. Today, 25 years later, the burnt trees are still there and the young ones are growing between them. By the way, in many National Parks I've seen an interesting sign next to the dried or burnt trunks - "The dead tree is a life tree. It's a home for many animals and insects and necessary for forest life".
Next time we stopped our car we walked on the boardwalk towards a
nice pond full of crystal clear water. The center of the pond was
boiling and the steam was rising above the pond... On the meadow across
we found a buffalo. A big animal was grazing alone and no one
was around. As far as I remember, we never saw buffalo
alone
anywhere in the park but here.
And a couple minutes later the buffalo just laid down and continued
grazing with all laziness possible. It was really interesting to see...
We found two more (but smaller) ponds on the top of the hill at the
end of the boardwalk. Warm water was rising up and feeding the small
streams running down the hill...
We still had a lot to see so we returned back to our car and kept moving just to stop again to see another waterfall ;)
Our next destination was a Fountain Paint Pot where we again were
surprised by many dried trees surrounding the boardwalk and in the
middle of the covered with mineral clay.
I am still wondering how they survived in the first place? Hot water and minerals. Not a very life friendly combination...
We passed the bacteria mat that was running from Silex Springs, a small hot lake on the top of the hill.
A few more steps and the path brought us to the Fountain Paint Pot,
a soft clay lake that boils like water. A few clay geysers spew the
dirt up to the air, but once it's on the ground it starts drying out and
creates a small desert around the boiling center.
But it wasn't the end of the trail so we continued and for the next
15 minutes we were looking at the Clepsydra Geyser. Unlike most of the
geysers in the valley, this one erupts on the schedule. Every three
minutes it throws a water jet and waits another three minute to do it
again. This punctuality actually was the reason for its name. But an
earthquake in 1959 broke something and after that it erupts almost
continuously. But it still holds the name ;)
We wanted to see how Morning and Fountain Geysers sending jets
of water into the air, but had no luck. What's a pity, these two are
usually considered the most beautiful in the park. Not a big deal, at
least we have a good reason to come back and see those ;)
Another boiling pond was located on the other side of the trail and
even gave us a friendly wave, sprinkled us with warm salty water and
kept boiling all the time we were passing by.
A few hundred yards and we reached for the Great Fountain Geyser
location. We checked the schedule and found that we just missed an
eruption and needed to wait like half a day for the next. We sighed
and... moved further to see something else.
Click here to jump to see - Yellowstone Park - Grand Prismatic Spring and Old Faithful - Part 5
Pictures were taken on September 04, 2010.
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