Yellowstone - Yellowstone River

In the northwest corner of Wyoming, United States is the famous Yellowstone National Park. Established by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, this 3,468 sq mi (8,983km²) park is home to more than half of the world’s geysers and geothermal and hydrothermal features. Yellowstone is the first national park in the United States and is widely considered the oldest in the world. In 1978 it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

With its unspoiled forests, mountains, lakes, canyons and rivers, Yellowstone has the largest concentration of mammals in the contiguous United States and more than 1,700 native species of trees and plants.

Taking an anti-clockwise approach to my route, I began my journey at the Mud Volcano Thermal Area. Located near one of Yellowstone Volcano’s vents, the area is known for its muddy hot springs and fumaroles. The trail is a loop that’s less than a mile (1km) long beginning with the Mud Cauldron, a large, steaming muddy pool. Over a short hill to the left is the boiling pool, Mud Geyser, which used to erupt muddy water up to 50ft (15m) high during the 1800s.

The trail leads to the Churning Cauldron, tossing muddy water. This area used to be a cool pool filled with bacteria until earthquakes in the late 1970s greatly increased its temperature.

Slightly off the boardwalk is the large sizzling Black Dragon’s Cauldron. It exploded into existence in 1948 along a crack in the earth, coating the nearby trees in mud. Just beyond the cauldron is the extremely acidic Sour Lake with its milky-green colour. Sour Lake is a result of microbes and the high levels of sulphur found in the area.

Near the end of the trail is Dragon’s Mouth Spring, named by a park visitor in 1912. Boiling water rolls out of a cavern nowadays but pre-1994, the water used to spill out like a wave, often splashing water as far as the boardwalk. Steam and gases exploded through the water inside the cavern, emitting strange rumbling noises. Between the noises and spitting water one can imagine the flick of a dragon’s tongue, making the name quite fitting.

Many of the trees on this trail are cooked by steam. An earthquake swarm in 1978, that lasted seven months, increased the heat and caused the vegetation to die. This area is known for having the greatest uplift and sinking of Yellowstone’s Caldera floor and as such many faults gather here making earthquakes quite common and the hydrothermal features one of the most acidic in the park.

This was a great start. I look forward to discovering more geysers, fumaroles and hot springs. With more than 10,000 hydrothermal features, I suspect there’ll be no shortage of bubbling pools, spitting geysers or steamy vents on my trip.



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