Day 331
Yellowstone
For such a tall bloke Tom can get away with so little sleep, so it was no surprise to hear him grab his camera and head out to explore at dawn break. I rolled over, determined to enjoy the warmth of a proper bed for a few more hours. A waste really when we were in such an awesome place.
Most of Yellowstone sits inside the exploded crater of a volcano, so not your everyday landscape. It last exploded 600,000 years ago and much of the crater has been slowly filled in by subsequent lava flows. There is molten lava just a few miles below the surface, this heats the ground water which in turn creates the thermal features throughout the park. There are four types: geysers, hot springs, fumaroles and mud pots. The geysers are basically a hot spring that erupts occasionally, the hot springs have a larger underground channels which allow the water to circulate rather than erupt. Microorganisms live in and around the springs creating the stunning colours. The fumaroles are like a hot spring without the water. There is either not enough water or the rocks below the surface are so hot the water is converted to steam, which escapes via a vent in the earth’s surface. Finally the mud pots are areas of water saturated sediment, similar to clay, rising steam forces its way through, sending explosions of mud into the air. All around these are what are called travertine terraces. The thermal water rises through limestone, creating calcium carbonate, which is deposited on the surface. Heat loving organisms then create the colourful stripes which fascinate us mortals. Hence Tom’s early morning expedition to capture them all on film.
After one finally viewing of Old Faithful erupting, we heading off to enjoy the rest of the park. Bison were wandering all around. I have a sneaking feeling that they like to mess with us humans and saunter along the road creating mile long traffic jams just for the fun of it!
The landscape was dotted with vents of steam, small hot springs and bison! We stopped off to see an area called the paint pots, mud pots to you and me, but looking just like various pots of paint. Then it was onto Madison campground. The weather is cold and wet, we quickly pitched our tent and headed back uphill along an area called Firetrap Canyon. The Madison River runs through this and it was simply stunning.
The campground is next to a plain where bison spend the winter months. This meant we could spend our evening watching hundreds of them settle down for the night. The moved along the valley floor, repeatedly forging across the river. We held our breath time and time again as the barely month-old bison, looking for all the world like red dogs swam through the fast flowing river. Older bison positioned themselves near to the younger ones to encourage them to cross. It was an awesome sight, a highlight of the trip.
We rounded off the evening chatting away with a lovely couple who work at the campsite and who kindly invited us into their RV and brewed us the best coffee of the trip so far!
