Mammoth Hot Springs

Found a spot in Mammoth Hot Springs Campground in Yellowstone National Park.

I don't think there was a day went by I didn't see Elk wandering through the campground.

One day about a dozen females and their young decided to bed down in the field inside the campground.

Met these wonderful people from Lousiana.  Hi Don and Betty, see you in February.

The old headquarters building for Fort Yellowstone is now the visitor center.

A large cone which once spouted a geyser, or at least some visible activity.  Although it looks totally dormant, the ranger says there is still hot water which rises up to 15 feet inside the cone.

Palette Springs.  They say the hot spring activity changes all the time, so if you come back several years later, it just might look totally different.  The white is fairly recent lime deposits from the hot springs, while the yellow area shows current activity (the yellow is the deposit of microscopic life forms).  The grey is the front is older, past activity, the grey being dirt and such which has taken up residence on the lime deposits.

This butterfly decided to hitch a ride.

Some areas hadn't seen hot spring activity is some time.  The ranger said this area was very active last year.

An indication of how the area changes.  They had to block this trail only this spring.

Cleopatra Springs

Opal Springs.  This area is next to some of the ranger housing, and some years ago was a tennis court, before the hot springs became active in this area.

Although you don't see a lot of water, you can see some steam rising above the cliffs, so there really is hot spring activity in the area.

Now I'm on top of those cliffs and you can see the activity much better.

Overlooking old Fort Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs Lodge.

You can always tell when a European has imported their RV.  I don't think anyone in the US makes them like this. 

After some rain showers there were these wonderful double rainbows.  I could actually see the entire rainbow, but couldn't get pictures of the entire thing.