After we left the Boiling River, we drove up to the Mammoth Hot Springs, which is yet another amazing feature within Yellowstone!
The hot spring deposits calcium carbonate as it flows down the travertine mountain. It's just a totally different sight than I've ever seen.
Adri was sleeping in the car, so we took a quick tour of the rock formations.
The water almost looks a milky-white. In some places, it was even bubbling!
The colors are beautiful!
I'm not sure what the story is behind the trees, but they look like they were recently burned. There was a huge fire at Yellowstone in 1988, but I'm not sure that those trees were remains from that fire.
After writing that last bit, I learned that the trees were actually killed by the calcium carbonate, which is carried by the water down the hills. Each day, over 2 tons of calcium carbonate flow into Mammoth. Wow.
This is "Liberty Cap," a dormant hot spring cone. Pretty awesome.
After visiting the hot springs, we went into the Fort Yellowstone district and watched the elk wandering around. We also ate some of the greatest ice cream ever and relaxed on the grass while we enjoyed the day! Noah loved his ice cream!
The elk were very comfortable in the town. They wandered wherever they wanted and city personnel would move cones around to keep people from getting too close to the animals. Even so, we were still able to get fairly close to these guys!
There were so many of them!!
Here's most of the Schrag clan, watching the elk wander through the town!
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