Fountain Paint Pots - Part I

As we were heading south we stopped at the Fountain Paint Pots.  They're part of the Lower Geyser Basin, which is north of the Midway and Upper Geyser Basins, between Old Faithful and Madison.

According to the area guide pamphlet you can see "the four types of hydrothermal features: geysers, hot springs, mudpots, and fumaroles."  In addition a rather famous creature, the bacteria Thermus aquaticus, "the thermophile organism that revolutionized DNA processes, was discovered in this area."

As we left the parking lot we started walking on a boardwalk.  It was interesting to see how it was laid down directly over some features (like the mats below) and flows of water in some places.

We came across some bacterial mats pretty quickly.  I still think the vast array of life to be found in these seemingly hostile conditions is amazing.

At Silex Spring, consider how this hot water arrived at the surface.  Deep beneath your feet, heat from partially molten rock beneath the surface is transmitted up through the earth's crust.  Ground water circulating through these rocks becomes heated and follows cracks upward.  Where the hot water can escape at the surface, a hot spring forms.

 Silex is Latin for silica, the major component of rhyolite, the primary volcanic rock in Yellowstone.  Hot water dissolves silica, which precipitates as siliceous sinter along the bottom of the spring and in runoff channels.

--from the NPS Fountain Paint Pot Area Trail Guide

These are some of the most amazing features, bubbling pots of mud.

We caught them at a decent season when they weren't too thick, but weren't too thin.

I really enjoy watching the bubbles of mud form:


Here you can get an even closer look:


Next we saw a fumarole spouting steam into the chill air.

It was wetter than most fumaroles--but most features change with the seasons.


The Red Spouter had quite a bit of roiling water, not too far beyond the fumarole above.

Red Spouter, which originated with the Hebgen Lake Earthquake, exhibits the behavior of all four thermal features.  In the spring and early summer it is a muddy hot spring that may seem like a geyser as it splashes reddish water several feet high.  As the water table lowers in late summer and fall, Red Spouter seems more like a big mudpot, and then a hissing fumarole.
--from the NPS Fountain Paint Pot Area Trail Guide

Tomorrow we'll continue along the boardwalk to the area's geysers.

~Matt