Yellowstone: Mammoth Country

To me, the name Mammoth Country conjures images of woolly elephants roaming expansive plains, or at least the bones of the same found in layer after layer of sediment. Here in Yellowstone it just means BIG, in reference to the heaping mounds of calcium and limestone deposits built by boiling, mineral-laden springs that have seeped and flowed and deposited their microscopic debris over the millennia. It's like an inside-out cavern creation--hot water instead of cold, flowing bottom up instead of dripping top down, exposed to the air instead of hidden underground.

The area is appropriately called "terraces," and they change all the time...the water temps, winds, and general surface structure make the water flow in different directions even day to day. Sometimes the water flows in the same swath long enough for its minerals to form ridges that become ledges and walls, creating shallow or deep pools. You can always tell an active or "live" part of a terrace spring: colors like orange, brown, or yellows (created by heat-loving micro-critters) and slick, bright white (too hot to sustain life, pure calcium deposits) show areas that are thriving with water flow. Areas of gray, boulder-like color, and dry white spots no longer have water over them, leaving the mineral deposits behind in "dead" hills that might come alive again at any time as the waters shift.

This year this area of activity is quiet--no burping mud pits, hissing fumaroles, or exploding geysers. The waters bubble a little (activity has been bigger in previous years), you can sometimes hear the water dribble off a ledge, but it's mostly flow of a quarter inch of water down a wall. The usual smell of sulfur and other minerals pervades.

The terraces seen from a distance--not very inspiring until you get up close.

At the upper terraces.

"I told you the earth was flat!" Water streams over an unseen terraced edge.

Another angle of the top terrace pool, with lovely Mt. Everts in the background. That mountain was our view from the campground, less than a mile north of here.

The other side of the terraced pool.

A little farther down.

Snow white and boiling hot.

At the lower terraces. Orange means microbes, white means none, but hot water was still flowing.


A fantastic expanse of dry, "dead" calcium deposits was right next to wet, living flows.

A close-up of Palette Springs in this area--the living and the dead.

A cascade of water at the top of the lower terrace, also visible two shots above.

In the Norris region of Mammoth Country, you can enjoy nearly two miles of boardwalk over geyser territory.

Loved the colors of this mini marsh among the gray grounds surrounding it.


Two crystal-clear springs shimmer in the sun. They're only about two feet wide.

A distance shot of Mt. Bunsen, a hill we later hiked.

The early part of the trail.

Urg...it got steeper pretty quick.

Two miles later, we reach the top for spectacular views of the valley. We're looking toward the same road where I snapped the shot of Bunsen from a distance. It's the main thoroughfare through Mammoth Country.

More fire damage and recovery.

At the top of Bunsen is an communications center--microwave, cell, etc. Note the federally-funded antenna made of a Home Depot bucket and foil tape.