Gentle viewer -- As noted yesterday, while in Yellowstone, I discovered that it didn't make sense to record things simply in static images because I often ran into situations where there were sounds and motion needed to make a scene whole. So, I took massive advantage of the video feature on my camera and made many short (and the occasional not too short) film clips. The film clips have thumbnails that are much smaller but should play as videos easily if your browser is properly configured.

Our second day in Yellowstone was to be devoted to thermal areas and in particular to some geyser areas and the hot springs at Mammouth Hot Springs. We began with breakfast at the inn from this menu with Suzanne studying as Ben pondered and I took this self portrait before Ben's first visit to the breakfast buffet brought back breakfast potatoes, fruit and French toast and mine brought back fruit and yogurt as Suzanne's coffee arrived with her fruit and yogurt from the menu and my orange juice arrived to accompany the breakfast potatoes, French toast and pastry I got on my second trip and Ben's second trip brought back some scrambled eggs and my third trip yielded these sweets to share.

We began the day with a stop at the Fountain Paint Pot area where we first saw the bacteria mat where the colors come from the (relatively) low temperatures that will support bacteria growth and not cause geysers to occur Next was Silex Spring in beautiful blue color and this was the fountain paint pots which looked spooky but put on quite a show with a description that made us want to record more. We read a description of Red Sprouter which looked like this but sent off remarkable steam before we made our way to leather pool with its nice blues and Ben's sense of it being a feminine pool. This was fountain geyser while in the distance we saw the first sign of spasm geyser even as we were passing fountain geyser and spasm once quiet showed its sign and then we came upon these motions first of spasm and then Clepsydra Geyser shot up even before we got to the sign which lead to this longer video with camera change and this final video of the geyser. We also observed trees that had been destroyed by their location at the paint pots Back in the car en route to the Norris Geyser Basin, we were at first delayed when this bison decided he owned the road (and my courage diminished so that I took the picture through the front windowshield and closed the driver's window). and then we got into a massive traffic jam which led to our stopping the car to get photos of this elk with a remarkable set of antlers who had a partner who apparently had left right before we arrived. After a number of pictures that tried to capture the horns

and this gentleman who might have preferred to do something to the elk. A short way down the road we ran into the elk's other half who was nice enough to pose for these pictures.

Our next stop was at the Norris Geyser Basin where these signs oriented us as we first stopped at Emerald Spring followed by Steamboat Geyser but today wasn't its day to erupt. Next came Cistern Spring and a view across the terrain where vegetation was slowly being displaced as we came to Echinus Geyser which erupted frequently when we visited in 1993 but now was surprisingly quiet as Suzanne and Ben waited and after more bubbling we moved on to Puff 'N Stuff Geyser and watched it do its thing. This was a broader view and then we came to Green Dragon Spring Blue Mud Steam Vent Yellow Funnel Spring and then a pause to realize the vastness of the Norris Basin and to record death of vegetation and animals locally and across the field. Pork Chop Geyser and Minute Geyser (which has an unfortunate story) followed but the vastness of the geyser basin continued to impress more than the behavior of any individual artifact and this is even more true when one realizes how many areas like this there are at Yellowstone. But we were back to Geysers and their actions and then on to Ledge Geyser in its glory as I admired the pools at various resolutions and watched action at a distance before being reminded that the colors corresponded to life and thermal activity. We continued to look broadly at the region we had just explored trying to absorb its vastness as we finished the trail and watched Suzanne come up the hill. On our way out, we watched this truck bring drinks to these machines and then recorded a license plate from yet another locale for our collection (which consisted of all USA entities except West Virginia and South Carolina (this being controversial because we met some people from South Carolina who were driving and though we didn't see their car, some felt we got credit for it) and Hawaii and the District of Columbia. We next headed towards Mammouth Hot Springs stopping at a roadside turnout to learn about the Burn Mosaic which we could also see before we got to Mammouth Hot Springs with its traffic and terraces and after rejecting the grill and being told that the restaurant wouldn't serve a meal for a few hours, we decided to head to Gardiner, Montana for lunch which enabled Ben to enter Montana to go back to Wyoming and for the 45th parallel to be there for me to cross before we reached the Town Cafe in Gardiner and admired the No Shoes, No Shirts, No Service sign and couldn't remember if an EAT sign means that one should go in or go elsewhere. Once inside, we admired the menu as Ben had a hard decision to make as Suzanne and I posed for this self portrait while I had a Blue Moon (local sweet) beer to go with Suzanne's diet coke and Ben's chocolate milk shake which went with Ben's Polish hot dog Suzanne's BLT and my Reuben-less Reuben sandwich. After the meal, we admired the wonderful taxidermy in the Town Cafe/Motel/Saloon gift shop including these ram's heads that we know Gregory is salivating over and this elk and the requisite bison. Before leaving town, we recorded the K-Bar and the Two Bit Saloon which represented accurately most of the establishments in Gardiner. We drove through the Roosevelt Arch to get back into the park and came upon this house at Mammouth Hot Springs where the terraces are threatening the house (or is it the other house a few pictures later?) and then followed this sign to the Liberty Cap which is 39 feet high and saw the other house that is potentially being threatened by the moving terraces as we looked up at a terrace on our way to Devil's Thumb and read this story of the colors that form in terraces (which move must faster than geysers in their change) as we took in remarkable scenes while Ben and Suzanne soldiered on in amazing heat past terraces as we searched for Pallette Spring down a trail overlooking the about to be destroyed by nature house along a trail that was not maintained and ended before it reached its other half (although the map suggested otherwise) and again captured the vastness of the area and the remarkable terraces it had spawned. Minerva Terrace was next followed by Mound Terrace and Jupiter Spring after which we began our journey back.

Along the way we stopped at Obsidian Cliff where Rock Thieves have caused harm over the years and made our way to the Visitors Center at Old Faithful where this ranger sold us tickets for a hike she would lead the next day.

It was getting late and we were hungry, so we went to the Deli in the Inn and gathered food. When I came back from our room with water, I saw Suzanne and Ben happily digging in as I delivered this cold water bottle to go with the various accouterments and Ben ate away at his dagwood sandwich. We had an excellent view of Old Faithful from the patio where we were sitting and so I kept getting ready for the next eruption

and when it went I Shot this video forgetting that I don't know how to rotate frames of a video though I did capture the wonderful commentary of one of the people watching the eruption with us. The video ended when the battery died (and nearly at the end of the eruption. I did capture a few pictures on the new battery before deciding to come back to the next eruption (from a slightly different vantage point to get the movie I wanted (without the commentary of our neighbor). Quite a remarkable sight.