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| Mammoth Hot Springs |
Yellowstone is both a completely unearthly and alien landscape, and a reminder of the devastating forces that lie unseen under the earth. Much of the park lies within a volcanic caldera which last erupted roughly 640,000 years ago, and signs show it will erupt again. Rather than being on a fault line, Yellowstone instead lies on a hot spot in the earth's crust, which has been stationary as the continent has drifted slowly above it. Once the hot spot was in northern Nevada.
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| A tiny hot spring bubbles up. |
Much of the spectacular colors and lines are shaped by thermophiles, which are bacteria and fungi that thrive precariously at different levels of heat. They cluster together to form vast blankets of rich color and texture.
Visiting this park is quite an experience. We knew that books and movies would be completely inadequate for Jasper to even begin to understand Yellowstone. There were times when my little chatterbox was actually speechless.
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| A bison wandering by the road. |
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| A bacterial mat. |
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| Elk grazing. |
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| A bubbling mudpot. |
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| The Fishing Hole, where fishermen used to cook their catch right on the line. |
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| Jasper finally caught one of the grasshoppers that made music wherever we went. |
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| Bacterial mat at Grand Prismatic Spring. |
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| A coyote we encountered. |
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| Mammoth Hot Springs. |
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