#718 Exploring Yellowstone - Mammoth Hot Springs

The terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs are the closest thermal feature to our cabin.

We take a walk around the "multi-leveled terraces of hot water falls, steamy semi-circular pools of red and green and yellow, and singular underground springs which percolate from the earth like a pot put on the fire to boil.  The water carries with it a milky-white substance of calcium carbonate and, when it shifts or retreats, it leaves behind strangely formed travertine aprons and solitary projectiles." - description from Letters from Yellowstone by Diane Smith.

Here's a horseshoe that has been soaked in travertine at Mammoth Hot Springs and sold as a souvenir in years past. This one now lives in the Yellowstone museum collections.

Some even say the terraces look other worldly and remind them of the Planet Vulcan from the 1979 Star Trek movie.  Could it be?  Even though we've visited the 2228 birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk in Riverside, Iowa, I haven't seen that Star Trek movie.  The Yellowstone Research Library has just what we need to determine just what the Planet Vulcan looks like. 

We pop the popcorn, put our feet up, and cue the movie. 

Sure enough, there's Spock looking up at us from Planet Vulcan with the terraces of hot water falls behind him - just like the ones we have here in Yellowstone.  

 
Yours in exploring the final frontier,
Mary Jo