Yellowstone- hot springs

Michael called this afternoon to let me know that the group had moved on to West Yellowstone, just in the Montana border in order to do laundry and cook. They are moving north on highway 287 and are hoping to camp along there tonight. Yesterday was a laid back day at camp for Michael and Trevor, and Claire and Calum hitchhiked into the park and saw the northern part of the Loop: The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and such. According to his comrades Michael looks too much like "a scary man" to be successful in getting rides now. Oh well, he got to rest and read all day instead.

He sent me some photos of the past few days and I've posted them above. You can click on the slideshow and be taken to my photo account if you would like to see any of them particularly. I'm going to write a short bit about each one below. I have included two that I pulled out of one of my high school papers and have interesting and somewhat sad stories related to what Michael saw.

1. The Grand Tetons: I know very little about these mountains except that they are very pretty and were created during the Laramide Orogeny, the event that created the Rocky Mountains (I'll talk more about this later). If you'd like to know more about Teton geology specifically look here (thanks Wiki!).

2. and 3. Michael's picture of Morning Glory Pool contrasted with a picture from around the 1950's: Michael told me specifically that he was sad after reading a post near the spring. In short people have ruined Morning Glory pool irreparably. It used to be one of the most popular pools in Yellowstone due to its beauty and similarity in color to the beautiful morning glory flowers.

However, because people have thrown debris in there they have plugged the below ground plumbing and the spring is no longer fed with hot enough water to sustain the original color. Thermophillic microscopic life lives in thermal pools at Yellowstone and creates particular colors, which are indicators of the temperature of the pool: 164-145F- Blue, light green; 144-122F -Orange, bright yellow. The lower temperature allows new algae and fungi growth, and the color of the spring has changed to an orange (maybe Michael likes it this way better ;) that is less popular than the original blue color.

A cleaning of Morning Glory in 1950 produced many objects including socks, bath towels, 76 handkerchiefs (to be explained next!), tax tokens, logs, bottles, tin cans, $86.27 in pennies, and $8.10 in other coins. People continue to pollute Morning Glory and sadly coins currently line the walls of the spring.

4. Handkerchief Pool, early 1900's: I included this to elaborate on why the hot springs are so damaged. This photograph has, yes, a ranger holding up a handkerchief about to drop it in a pool.
Many hot springs are connected to others by the underground plumbing. In the past people would place debris into a feature to determine if the water could eject it, for more frequent eruptions, for good luck, for amusement, or for no apparent reason. Rocks, sticks, and other objects can completely block off an opening and stop all water flow. They can also cause a pressure buildup, so the next geyser eruption is sooner and more powerful. The plumbing system can be damaged, sometimes irreparably, because of the extra force in these eruptions.

Clothing was commonly laundered at hot springs and even Old Faithful was used for this chore in the 1880’s because when clothes were washed in Old Faithful, they came out “nice and clean as a …week’s scrubbing.” By doing laundry at springs, people discovered that adding soap, another foreign material, to certain springs would make them erupt (I don't know the chemistry or other particulars of the reaction here). The soaping induced an almost immediate eruption for impatient tourists and almost all geysers were soaped at some point. Soaping induced eruptions that were usually more powerful than normal and more likely to damage the plumbing due to too much force.

There were also handkerchief tricks that were even listed as amusements in tour guides. The most famous of these pools was Handkerchief Pool, though others were used too. Handkerchief pool had particular currents that would suck handkerchiefs in one vent and return them “nice and clean” in another vent soon after. Unfortunately some logs stuffed by careless tourists into the vent of Handkerchief Pool in 1929, plugged this spring. If the handkerchief trick were still allowed today (thank goodness it isn't!), it would not work because the plumbing that allowed for it was destroyed. Sad.

5. Dragonfly: Michael said that this morning there was a dragonfly flitting around. It was cold in the morning so the df was having trouble flying. He picked it up and held it on his hand. His skin's warmth helped it heat so it soon flew off. I think it might be a Black Meadowhawk, but whatever it is it has fantastic wing patterns!

6. Entering Montana: Just the requisite state sign.