Geothermal areas

Science was always my least favorite subject throughout school. However, if we somehow had gone on a field trip 2,000 miles away to Yellowstone, I am sure I would've been more interested. Here are some facts I have learned, and pictures to go with them.

Yellowstone is home to an estimated 10,000 geothermal features (geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and more). I am actually living, working and playing each day on top of a super volcano, which hopefully won't erupt anytime soon. ;)

Here is Silex Spring, which is located in the Lower Geyser area of the Park:




Although there are hot springs in the west that people can actually enjoy and bathe in, the thermal features at Yellowstone are not people or animal friendly. The water temperature is using at boiling, and much of the water actually contains acid in it.


Nevertheless, this little guy is just way too cute. And his name is "Jelly Geyser."

Awww...Don't cha just want to poke him?


On to his exact opposite: "Spasm Geyser."



These are a set of Fountain Paint Pots, which are different colored pools of bubbling, boiling mud...

Such a nice terra cotta color. Perhaps for a living room?...



Gray paint...





And now I have saved my favorite for last. This is a hot spring called, "Dragon's Breath." There are 2 main points I'd like to point out with this one. The first is that it smells exactly the way you'd expect a dragon's breath to smell like. Secondly, it bubbles furiously and makes a loud, bone-chilling grumble, over and over and over. Here is my conclusion about the dragon. Clearly, the dragon must be a "she," and "she" is not happy. From the looks and sounds of the spring, she is one dragon that perpetually has PMS, and who has been scorned.

One person commented that observing the Dragon's Breath Spring is like looking inside of hell. Ha! I don't know if I'd go that far in describing it, but it is definitely a thrilling look into what is happening underneath us all of the time, in the middle of the earth. I wish a had a video camera in this instance to show you more, but my trusty digital camera will have to do. Hell hath no fury like a dragon scorned...





To add to the scene, I saw a buffalo in the haze, just above the spring:



It was just too smelly for him.