Mammoth Terraces I

After leaving the Mammoth General Store we drove up to the terraces, where the geothermal features of the area are located.  We first drove up a winding road towards the Upper Terrace Drive planning to drive around that loop to see what we could.  Then we figured that we would drive down towards the lower terraces, find a parking place, and explore those features on foot.

This [Upper Terrace Drive] one-way road is narrow, winding, with limited parking.  Trailers, busses, and motor homes are prohibited.  Park these vehicles at the entrance and enjoy the Upper Terraces on foot.  Please stay on the road or boardwalks.
--from Mammoth Hot Springs Trail Guide booklet

Off in the distance you can see the buildings of Mammoth Hot Springs.

We walked down into the maze of boardwalks just a bit.  The upper part of the Main Terrace had some steep steps if you walked all the way up from the Lower Terraces, so we decided to explore some of the area while we were at the Upper Terraces.

This was just the first of many largely dry features.  I'm not sure if we just came at a dry time, but while we some features that were wet the vast majority were dry.

I think that this might be Cupid Spring.

I'm not sure which mountains these are, but they definitely had plenty of snow.

As we walked we started to see the edge of the terraces through the trees.

There were many areas with extensive travertine deposits.

In fact the entire area is quite easy to spot on a satellite view of the region.  The white below encompases the three terrace areas.

This is Grassy Spring, which was off to the right as we walked towards Canary Spring and the edge.

These look like algae in the water, but I'm sure it was thermophilic bacteria.

These formations look somewhat like coral to me (though I know they were formed through different processes).

And finally we saw some terraces covered with water!

Though they're barely in the shot you can see some of the large number of tourists that we shared the boardwalk with.  I think a bus or two had just unloaded.

This is the edge of Canary Spring, as seen from a ways back on the path.

 The trees grew quite close to the path in several spots.

But you could still peek through the trees.

The terrace was like another waterfall, quite different, but still very beautiful.

Here you can see even more of the spill over the edge.

As you can hear in the video, there was a large school age group sharing the boardwalk with us. They headed back up soon after we got to the end as they had some sort of meeting with rangers, so we had a bit of peace and quiet amidst the tourists.


After seeing the spring we walked back to our car and resumed driving around the Upper Terrace Drive.  Prospect Spring was a bit dry.  According to the guide it was active in the 90s but shortly thereafter in "the mid-2000s, activity shifted toward the trees."

I think it is very interesting to notice how mineral deposits sometimes grow over trees.

There were beautiful flowers providing splashes of color.

This is Orange Spring Mound.

After stopping at Orange Spring I parked the car and walked back to take some pictures of either New Highland Terrace or Highland Terrace--I'm not completely sure which.

There was a good bit of water coming down in the middle of these formations.

You can see this even better via this video.


Here you can see the other side of Orange Spring Mound.

Bath lake is quite dry and has apparently been so since 1926, though it was a swimming hole before that time.  "It filled again after the 1959 Hebgen Lake Earthquake and remained a lake through the 1970s."  So perhaps it will fill up again in the future.

I think this might be White Elephant Back Terrace.

Water laden with calcium carbonate has flowed from a fissure to build this ridge, which an early tour guide thought resembled the back of an elephant.  Activity constantly shifts here.
--from Mammoth Hot Springs Trail Guide booklet

The dramatic presence of this feature comes from abundant water, white formations, and colorful thermophiles that thrive in hot water.  Angel Terrace was dry and crumbling for decades, but resumed activity in 1985.  Some of the other dormant features you have seen on this drive may one day flow again too.
--from Mammoth Hot Springs Trail Guide booklet

Closeup you can see several of the distinct terraces.

As we drove down towards the lower terrace area I took this picture that captured a good bit of the whole upper terrace.

The next post will cover the lower and main terraces.

~Matt