Our sore legs are feeling a little better now. Apparently a bit of walking around is actually doing us some good. I’ll quit whining.
Our next stop is Mud Volcano. Yellowstone itself is a volcano. After its eruption 640,000 years ago the land collapsed creating a caldera which filled with lava. Mud Volcano is close to one of the major vents from which the lava flowed.
The area surrounding Mud Volcano is known as a resurgent dome. Basically a resurgent dome is an area of active ground deformations where the land moves up and down with the magma chamber below. Yellowstone has LOTS of these.
The ranger assured everyone that we do not need to run screaming from the park…just yet.
This is the Mud Caldron.
Talk about stink!! The sulfur / rotten egg smell was over powering. Bleh.
Mudpots are very acidic and have limited water. There are these crazy microorganisms that convert the smelly gas (hydrogen sulfide) into sulfuric acid. The acid breaks down the rock and when mixed with a little water makes mud.
Churning Caldron looked just like a….well….a churning caldron of mud.
Mud Volcano, for which the area was named didn’t look much like a volcano. A violent eruption, a hundred or so years ago, blew out one side of the volcano cone leaving just a crater of bubbling mud.
The Dragon’s Mouth Spring was probably my favorite feature of this area.
It sounded like a dragon grumbling, smelled like what I would imagine dragon’s breath would smell like, and it did shoot water out close to the walkway.
John said he could only imagine what early settlers thought when they came across these features in Yellowstone.
Across the road from Mud Volcano were some other mudpots. Sulfur Cauldron. Trust me it is aptly named!
It was a beautiful view of the river though.
Bubbles in the water! Could this possibly be a geyser in the making? We will have to return some day to see if anything develops.
As further proof that Yellowstone is constantly changing, this little guy opened up in the parking lot.
I heard a woman state to her husband that they shouldn’t have put a parking lot this close to one of these vents. Very patiently, her husband explained that this vent opened up AFTER the parking lot was already here. Hmmm….
Keep up the good work we are enjoying the tour……