Artist Paint Pots

From Norris, we continued south toward Madison. The first stop on this leg was at the Artist Paint Pots.

People have argued that visiting and taking photos of stinking mud holes is a lot like admiring a leaky bathroom faucet covered in mold. But I would remind folks that I have pictures of that, too.

The Artist Paint Pots was a real-life amusement park full of colorful bubbling mud.

Ferric oxide (iron rust) stains many of the mud pots a dark reddish color.

The natural color of the mud is a whitish gray.

See the ripples? The mud isn't so much "boiling" as it is "burping". Hydrogen sulfide gas percolates up from deep within the earth and emerges here. The gas contributes to the acidity of the mud.

Some of the mud pots are actually crusted with geyserite. It's a reminder that if it weren't for the addition of acid, or if the rock were more acid-resistant, this would probably be a hot spring.

***
We found a few more amusements along the road to Old Faithful.

The steam cloud hovering over Beryl Spring beckons you to pull your car over and take a closer look. If the bright blue color wasn't evidence enough, the bubbles at the surface would tell you just how hot this pool is.

We stopped at this rest area and got an unexpected great view of the ancient caldera rim. You'll recall that the caldera is what is left of the volcano that blew this region apart 600,000 years ago.

We took a small side-trip off the Grand Loop Road. The one-way Firehole Canyon Drive follows the Firehole River. Upstream, it meanders past several geothermal features. But here, the river's waterfalls are its most alluring feature. This waterfall is known as Firehole Falls.

The Firehole River steams on cold days. It is warmed by the runoff of several geysers, and it is close to several heated underground chambers. The Firehole River has a place where swimming is allowed, but it was temporarily closed due to strong currents. Don't worry, though. We'll have our opportunity to get saturated by geyser chemicals/particles tomorrow.

Norris Geyser Basin: Porcelain and Back Basin Trails

There are 2.2 million acres in Yellowstone. You'd think that crowds wouldn't be an issue. Alas, the infrastructure has not kept up with the ever-increasing number of visitors. We had a difficult time finding parking at Norris Geyser Basin. It has a prime location between Mammoth and Old Faithful. Add to that the beautiful day in the middle of summer, and you've got a recipe for a lot of traffic.

I dropped Ma off at the entrance and went to find a parking place. When I rejoined her, Ma was sitting on the ground. Her blood sugar had become dangerously low. And, thanks to Murphy's Law, this was one of the few times I was traveling light. I had water, but I had no snacks to offer her. I sprinted back to the car and grabbed every carbohydrate in sight. Ma's blood sugar eventually stabilized, but it scared the hell out of me. I vowed we would never be caught without food again.

Once the incident was behind us, we explored Norris Geyser Basin.

Norris Geyser Basin has two trails. They start on opposite sides of the small geyser museum. This side is the Porcelain Basin.

Just like at other geyser areas, this one was inhabited by exotic thermophiles that turned the runoff into a kaleidoscope of colors. The water behind me was heated by the Pinwheel Geyser.

Sometimes the colors produced a "Lord of the Rings" setting: dank, dark, and dangerous.
These pools were no less impressive, though.

This might look like just a couple of holes in the ground...

...but look closer. The geyserite silica has settled into a network of "veins". So awesome!

Ma was feeling a bit tired after the earlier ordeal and the Porcelain Basin hike. I continued to the other trail, Back Basin, solo.

Emerald Spring

Why is the sky blue? It's because particles in the earth's atmosphere scatter the blue light the most. Emerald Spring's sides and bottom are coated with yellow sulfur deposits. And the minerals in the water work a lot like the particles in the earth's atmosphere. During the day, the sun's light refracts in the pool as blue. So, the yellow sulfur and blue light combine to make the pool appear bright green. In the morning and evening, the pool is yellow.

This is Steamboat Geyser. Its major eruptions are currently the highest in the world. Recent eruptions have topped out at 300 feet. I use the word "recent" loosely. The last event was May 23, 2005.

I witnessed several minor eruptions of just a dozen feet or so. I was fairly itching for it to shoot out a big eruption. My odds were not good. It could lay dormant for fifty years like it did between 1911 and 1961.

Cistern Spring will drain completely during a major Steamboat Geyser eruption. It takes days to refill.

Echinus Geyser is acidic. It's nearly the same pH as vinegar. That reddish deposit you see at its edge is a combination of iron, manganese, aluminum and and arsenic. It's eruptions are erratic.

Puff 'N Stuff Geyser

Like its name suggests, it made a lot of noise.

Blue Mud Steam Vent

This was possibly the stinkiest spot on the trail. As I've described a couple times before, the acid in the water dissolves the rock around it and it turns into a mud pot. This one plopped and spit a bluish colored mud.

Algae

Porkchop Geyser

An underground thermal "disturbance" affected the entire basin area in 1985, and Porkchop Geyser was affected most of all. It began to continuously jet water and steam. And it didn't stop for four years! Then it mysteriously became clogged. On September 5, 1989, Porkchop abruptly exploded, hurling rocks and debris at eight stunned tourists. Thankfully no one was hurt. You can see some of the larger rocks that were displaced by the explosion.

Pearl Geyser

The white dots are deposits of geyserite.

See? Sometimes geyserite forms blobs instead of veins.

Vixen Geyser

Despite her crusty appearance, she erupts every five to ten minutes. Like a vixen.


***
That's enough geysers for a while. Let's go see some stinky mud pots!

Day 12: Leaving Mammoth

Today we return to Old Faithful by way of several very popular stops in the park. But that's not until later. The park is quiet at this time of the day. We were able to enjoy several roadside attractions before we joined the masses.

This is Rustic Falls. It has a unique shape.

In Custer State Park, three elks at dusk, half-hidden in the brush, were the highlight of our day. Here in Yellowstone, more than half a dozen elks posing in an open field had become an ordinary occurrence.

A certain tribe of Shoshone Indians opted not to domesticate the horse and chose instead to use dogs as pack animals and hunt on foot. Their diet consisted of bighorn sheep instead of buffalo, leading to the nickname "sheepeaters".

This cliff offers an up-close view of the same basalt column formations that we saw in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone a couple days ago.

Obsidian Cliff

Molten silica that cooled rapidly formed these cliffs about 180,000 years ago. Obsidian is black glass. It's hard and brittle. It fractures with a sharp edge, making it a valuable rock for tool-making. We don't often think about natives being "miners" but they did come here to chip off pieces and carry them away. It's also shiny and smooth, making it a desirable rock as a souvenir. Rock thieves have pilfered a great deal of it.

Roaring Mountain

It's written that in the late 1800s and early 1900s you could hear the hiss of the fumaroles from miles away. Roaring Mountain wasn't quite that loud when we visited, but it was quite a sight to see.

Hundreds of fissures in the side of the hill released stinky columns of steam.

The highly acidic hydrogen sulfide dissolves the clay-based rock and has carved deep lines in the hillside. It has also bleached the stone and discolored the nearby trees.

We'd reached Norris. Our first stop there was the Norris Soldier Station, now home to the Museum of the National Park Ranger.

Yellowstone was the first national park in the world. Nobody quite knew how to protect it. For the first fourteen years, it was managed by a "superintendent". He had very little authority and no means of enforcing his policies. The position had high turnover. In 1886, the army assumed responsibility. They fared better protecting the park from poachers, but were understandably unskilled in interpreting the park for the public. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson established the National Park Service. A new breed of protector emerged: The National Park Ranger. They took over administration of Yellowstone in 1918.

Today, the National Park Service manages 58 national parks, covering 52 million acres and hosting 63 million annual tourists. But it doesn't end there. In addition to the national parks, they're also responsible for various national monuments, forests, battlefields, and so forth. That's an additional 32 million acres and 257 million tourists.

Doppelganger

It's surreal. I happened to be watching "Under the Tuscan Sun", and I did a double-take during the wedding scene. My cousin's wife looks just like the Italian girl in the movie!

The Real Sara

The Italian "Sara"

Gemuetlichkeit parade

Each September my hometown celebrates their German heritage with a festival called Gemuetlichkeit. Sunday was the parade. It was a good weekend to be in town!

Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate this year. It was rainy and got colder as the day progressed. Still, it was a decent parade with a respectable turnout.

Three of the Brewers'/Klement's racing sausages participated in the parade. That's the bratwurst and hot dog there. The Polish sausage is running around somewhere out of frame.

This was the best float. I think it was for the city's Catholic Church. Its mouth was even operational!

And the caudal fin (tail) worked, too.

My mother works for Jones Dairy Farm. Despite the name, they don't produce dairy products. Or even beef. They mostly deal in pork. One of the owners fixed up a classic pick-up truck to look like a pig. The side says "Oinkster".

These little cars driven by the Shriners are a staple in the parade. I look forward to their synchronized dance every year.

To have and to hold

This past Saturday was my cousin DJ's wedding.

His bride's name is Sara. Her father walked her down the aisle.

It was a very personalized wedding. Each bridesmaid wore a different style dress. Each groomsman wore a different suit. And the best man was the groom's father. Such a novel idea!


It was Uncle Danny's responsibility to present the rings, but they got stuck in his pocket. Everyone held their breath while he worked them out.

"With this ring, I thee wed..."

Cousins Mason and Julius

I hope DJ and Sara add more to the family. Maybe some girls! We've already got a whole passel of boys.

Congratulations to the new couple!

The wedding cake

All the food was amazing. Pork loin. Meatballs. Asiago-wrapped asparagus. Hibachi beef and chicken. Just to name a few dishes. So delicious!

I love the attention to detail. DJ wears glasses and the flower on the dress matches Sara's perfectly.

Uncle Danny made the most beautiful box to hold cards. DJ and Sara are going to Italy for their honeymoon, so the Pantheon seemed appropriate.

DJ & Sara's first dance as a married couple.

Then the party really got started. I danced until I practically fell asleep on the dance floor.
Thanks for such a great time!

Montana

For dinner, we're going to Montana.

This is the iconic northern entrance road. The last few miles are in Montana (north of the 45th parallel). The arch marks the boundary of the park. On the other side is the city of Gardiner.

I read in the guidebook about a place that served huge hamburgers. One diner suffering from powerful heartburn dubbed them "Helen's Hateful Hamburgers". The proprietress latched onto the name proudly. We just had to check this place out.

The burgers were expensive and took a really long time to cook, but they were big and filling, just like the guidebook promised they would be. It was getting late, so we got ours to-go.

The 7-inch-wide monstrosity contained a half pound of meat, three kinds of cheese, bacon, plus all the fixings. I ate the whole thing!

I'm sitting on one of the beds in our little cabin in Mammoth. It had a fantastic front porch where you could sit outside and enjoy the waning daylight.

Bedtime at last; day 11 was a HUGE day.