Back to the Yellow Zone, I mean Yellowstone, pictures.

[urbpan]

When Yellowstone was created as a park it was before Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho were states. Being a big area full of edible animals and interesting mineral resources that were suddenly all protected by the U.S. government, it needed protection. That job went to the army, who did the job in tents until they got tired of camping in fifty below, so they put some buildings up.

Then the Parks Service was created, and protecting the park became the job of Park Rangers, so the army cleared out to kill Spaniards or something. The buildings became a little tourist village called Mammoth Hot Springs. This village has watered lawns and a lack of predators, which suits the local elk population just fine. They have given up migrating, and they hang out surrounded by tourists (being yelled at by Park Rangers) an awful lot of the day.


Uinta ground squirrels also take advantage of the watered lawns and lack of predators.


The actual hot springs are up the hill a bit, oozing calcium rich water which hardens into a mineral called travertine into flat topped formations called terraces.




















At many active thermal sites, there are warning signs.


I've thought long and hard about why this sign made me laugh so much, and I've decided it's either the hat flying off, or the altitude making me light-headed.

Comments

[mandy-moon.livejournal.com]

Wow.

I was studying your bizarre landscape pictures and trying to decide if they more closely resembled a moon of an outer planet, like Titan or Miranda or something; or the cambrian period landscape. It just seems like an alien world..right in the middle of the country.

[drocera.livejournal.com]

The geology of this place just amazes me!

I think the funny thing about the sign is that the little brat is getting scalded. Period. Dumbass.

[drocera.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I'm NOT referring to YOU as a dumbass. I posted that comment, sat here for a minute and thought "He might think I'm calling HIM a dumbass."


I'm not.

I'm referring to the kid.

[marathoner452.livejournal.com]

The travertine looks like snow and not of this planet. Beautiful pictures.

[frith]

Sweet! Love the napping deer.

[barbmg.livejournal.com]

1st photo is so so so so cute, and many of the others are breath-taking.

It's totally the hat that makes that drawing, plus the action of his camera and his shorts. Comedy gold.

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

Half Price Tiles! TILES TILES TILES! Turkish Travertine!!!

Now I know what those annoying ads are on about.

[ndozo.livejournal.com]

It's so weird and pretty out there. Have you heard the elk whistling/warbling at night? (I think it ws the elk that did this...)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I didn't hear them at night (all I could hear but once when I was walking by a bunch I heard some weird whistling.

Aha!

[richmackin.livejournal.com]

You can tell us all about what to do when WE go to the same places over the next month!

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

I went to Yellowstone with friends in 1999 and then to Pozzuoli, near Napoli in Italia, with my husband and daughter in 2000. Having found the sulfur springs at Yellowstone beyond delightful, I was excited to find springs mentioned in the Naples guidebook.

My family could not understand why I dragged them on a train ride to Pozzuoli for a visit to a small but beautiful park of ruins near the station, and then a very long walk along a nearly deserted local highway with almost no signage and with the two food stores closed for the 3-hour lunch. However, they forgave me upon arrival at the Solfettare, as they darted in and out of the small caves labeled 145 and 165 (degrees F about 6 feet in from the cave mouth) and watched the steam coming out of the ground near the pathways.

Unlike Yellowstone, which had warning signs everywere, Pozzuoli just had instructions to stay on the path. They didn't tell you not to lean on the walls in the cave or warn you that your sneakers would melt if you wandered into the bubbling mud. I guess either they don't have so many personal injury lawyers over there or they figure if you're too stupid to follow instructions, you'll smarten up pretty fast.

[weofodthignen]

Ah, Travertine marble for the picking :-)

Those recumbent elk are terribly cute.

M