After driving down from the Upper Terraces we looked for a parking space next to the Lower Terraces. It took a bit of searching as most of the spots were filled. However, we finally found one and parked the car, deciding that we'd walk to all the remaining features instead of trying to move the car once more.
For hundreds of years, Shoshone and Bannock people collected minerals from Mammoth Hot Springs for white paint. These minerals contribute to the beautiful terrace structures, along wit heat, a natural "plumbing" system, water, and limestone.
The volcanic heat source for Mammoth Hot Springs remains somewhat of a mystery. Scientists have proposed a number of sources, including the large magma chamber underlying the Yellowstone Caldera, or perhaps a smaller heat source closer to Mammoth.
At Mammoth, a network of fractures and fissures form the plumbing system that allows hot water from underground to reach the surface. The water comes from rain and snow falling on the surrounding mountains and seeping deep into the earth where it is heated. Small earthquakes may keep the plumbing open.
Limestone...provides the final ingredient. Hot water with dissolved carbon dioxide makes a solution of weak carbonic acid. As the solution rises through rock, it dissolves calcium carbonate, the primary compound in limestone. At the surface, the calcium carbonate is deposited in the form of travertine, the rock that forms the terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs.
--from NPS booklet, Mammoth Hot Springs Trail Guide
The first thing we noticed about the lower terraces was that they were mostly dry. It might be that we came at a bad time of year or just a bad year. I gather that water levels frequently fluctuate in this area and what is wet one year may be dry the next. These stairs (below) led up towards the Mound and Jupiter Terraces, but we ended up not going up into this area, but instead walking towards Minerva Terrace.
This is much of Minerva Terrace. Descriptions describe the area as having the "look of layer cakes and lace-edged pools" and was named "for the Roman goddess of artists and sculptors." It did look pretty even when dry, but it was also somewhat disappointing after the large number of wet formations we'd seen thus far in Yellowstone.
This trail closure wasn't yet reflected on the guide pamphlet available in the area. We tried to circle from Minerva around towards Palette Spring, but the trail had been overrun by thermal activity and made for an unexpected dead end.
Here you can look down from behind Cleopatra Terrace, the wettest spot we found in the entire area, onto Mammoth Hot Springs below.
We headed back past Minerva Terrace (on the right in the picture below), down towards the parking lot, and followed that path towards the area of the terraces closest to the buildings of Mammoth Hot Springs.
Liberty Cap has an interesting history. It is 37 feet tall and was named "in 1871 by the Hayden Survey because it resembled the peaked knit camps symbolizing freedom and liberty during the French Revolution."
At last we came to an area that looked alive!
As you can somewhat see in this picture some of the stone is getting rather close to some buildings. I'm not sure if the Park Service will end up moving buildings or trying to divert the stone...
It was still a short walk down towards the path, the other end of which was where we would have come down if the path hadn't been closed off.
This is the Devil's Thumb, a knob of rock that sticks up right next to Pallette Spring.
Palette Spring features water flowing "in crisscrossing patterns down a steep ridge where colorful thermophiles create a changing palette dominated by hues of orange and down." As the guide notes it is somewhat akin to running watercolors.
Directly next to the spring is the beautiful Cleopatra Terrace.
There are many colors and plenty of water flowing through this area.
There were a large number of people in the area and one was kind enough to take a picture of both of us in front of this formation. I'm glad we saved it for last, as it was the best looking one in the entire area.
After seeing Cleopatra we headed back down into town to explore a bit more.
~Matt
PS
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