Mammoth Paint Pots, curious pink and white mud springs, Yellowstone Park, U.S.A.

Publication

Mammoth Paint Pots, curious pink and white mud springs, Yellowstone Park, U.S.A.

Description

Lower Geyser Basin is between Firehole River and its east fork. It covers an area of about 38 square miles. The central part is a plateau with only a few trees and is of marshy ground or covered with deposits from the springs. The slopes which surround the basin are covered with thick woods, and are several hundred feet higher. There are about 700 hot springs and about 20 geysers in this basin, many of them being small, but nevertheless interesting. Fountain Geyser is in this basin. It is in eruption frequently at intervals of two or three hours, so one can be sure of seeing it in action if they are willing to wait a short time. The deposit spreads over quite an area and formations of geyserite seen in the crater through the water are very beautiful. Taking the road that passes to the east of the main river. Mammoth Paint Pots soon come into view. This is a large basin covering almost a square rod, and containing a seething, boiling mass of silicious clay. It looks lika a large mortar bed. Mud is continually boiling up, rising in rings and cones. On three sides of the basin is a wall of mud about four or five feet high. On the north side the wall is low and seems to be the edge of a flat of pink and white mud, through which are many mud cones of a beautiful pink shade. The cones are about two feet high. It is quite impossible to imagine mud making such beautiful and delicately colored formations. The bubbling mass in the interior and the pink cones on the flat look not unlike a large quantity of boiling paint and over-running paint jars.