Mammoth Hot Springs and Beaver Ponds

Hi Blog.  Today we decided to take it easy and visit Mammoth Hot Springs and then do a five mile day hike up to the beaver ponds behind Mammoth Village.  We started our Mammoth Hot Springs walk at Liberty Cap.  Now, I know some of you can come up with some more imaginative names for this edifice, but according to our trail guide it was named Liberty Cap way back in 1871 because it resembled the peaked knit caps of the French Revolution.  You might get a clue from the fact that the adjoining, flat travertine terrace is known as Hymen Terrace.  :)  Some say Liberty Cap looks more like a troll or something from Lord of the Rings.

What makes Mammoth so mammoth is all the travertine that the hot springs bring to the surface.  As the water flows down, the minerals are deposited in shelves or terraces.  It is one of the tallest features on the park, but does not cover as large an area as Old Faithful Basin or Norris Basin.

The terraces just keep going up and up.  Here we are looking down at the hot spring that flows over the ledge creating the Palette Spring, so named because of all of the different colors of the minerals.

Here is a short video of the Palette Spring in action.

The hot springs are constantly changing.  An area can be wet one day and then dry the next.  The travertine can pile up to a foot in a single year.

After wandering up and down the boardwalk around the hot springs, we decided to head off into the woods on the Beaver Pond Loop Trail.  As the north entrance was the first entrance to Yellowstone Park, the trails and visitors center are the oldest.  As we hiked up the trail, we came across one of the original trail markers for the "Ranger Nature Trail."

The trail worked its way up the Clematis Gulch following along a small creek.  Soon thereafter, the trail rambled its way through meadows and stands of aspen trees.

As we worked our way to the beaver ponds, we passed through numerous bio-zones.  We had the high alpine meadow, the sage brush plains and then the more deeply wooded and wet boggy areas.  Here a small snake crossed our path.

While the beaver no longer live in this valley, they have left behind a legacy of several ponds which are now being used by ducks, deer, moose, elk and bears (not to mention flies and mosquitoes).  Because of the aforementioned insects, we didn't linger long over lunch.

On the hike back down, we passed three more ponds.  We kept our eyes out for moose, elk and bear, but they were all taking their afternoon naps.

It was't long before we left those beautiful, shady, cool, wet woodlands behind and headed back out to the dry plain.

The wide open plain gave us a chance to look down on Gardiner from the opposite side.  If you look closely in a large size version of the photo above, that "G" on the opposite hill was where we hiked to last night when we climbed above the town of Gardiner.

Here we are coming back in to Mammoth Hot Springs Village.  Just to the right of the hotel is the Terrace Grill were we treated ourselves to Ice Cream Floats - Huckleberry Ice Cream and Sprite.  You definitely need to try one of these after a five mile hike in 95 degree weather!

Happy Trails!