RHH's photos with the keyword: mud volcano

The photos I've posted today are all of the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone National Park, this of Dragon's Mouth Spring one of the features near the parking area. The Mud Volcano area is on the east side of the lower loop of Yellowstone's main road and one of the worst smelling areas of the park, but very active thermally. The hot mud pots are especially noteworthy. I've only added one inset, of Mud Volcano itself, but have posted other photos of Black Dragon's Cauldron, Sour Lake, Grizzly Fumarole, of animal tracks through the mud pots and of runoff from the springs.

Black Dragon's Cauldron is a sea of seething black or dark gray mud in the back part of the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone National Park. This very old photo, a scanned slide taken in 1979, is of the "dragon's tongue."

Sour Lake is a lake of acidic water (sulfuric acid) in the back park of Yellowstone National Park's Mud Volcano area. This old photo, a scanned slide from 1979 shows the lake as it looked many years ago.

Graizzly Fumarole is along the trail to the back part of the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone National Park. The trail is a loop that takes you to Sour Lake and Black Dragon's Cauldron.

This is part of the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone National Park looking from the parking area to the boardwalk that circles the area with Mud Volcano visible in the background.

The Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone National Park is especially notable for its mud pots, places where the boiling water has mixed with the soil to form pots of hot mud. In this case the mud is marked with animal tracks, probably of a bison that has wandered through the area (it's really hard to get them to stay on the boardwalks). The animals of Yellowstone, especially in cold weather, are often found near the hydrothermal areas where it is warm and grass is growing. They do not always survive their trips through these areas.

The patterns in the mud here were left by runoff from the hot springs and mud pots of the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone National Park.

There's a story that goes with this photo, a story of a scare we had in the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone National Park, a scare that involves this big guy. Bison are very common in Yellowstone and usually we are happy to see them and watch or photograph them from the safety of our vehicle. In this case we would rather have missed the opportunity. We were hiking to Sour Lake (see last inset) along the short trail that leads there from the parking area and were on a section of the trail that was not only boardwalk but had a railing on the outside when this this Bull Bison appeared out of the bushes a few yards away. You can figure how close he was by looking at the EXIF information and noticing that I had my telephoto lens on only 135mm when this photo was taken. We did not know whether we should stay behind the railing and on the boardwalk which seemed very little protection, or back off down the trail. When he began pawing the ground (this is an area where several people were attacked by Bison the past year), we decided to back off and slowly moved away down the trail, though I did snap a few photos in the process. I do not know what we would have done if he had actually attacked, though we kept the railing and boardwalk between us and him the whole time. When we came back down the trail he was still there and we gave him a wide berth even though that meant leaving the boardwalk and getting on ground that is not always stable, though it appeared to be in this case.

We encountered this Bull Bison while on the trail to Sour Lake in the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone. He did not like the sight of us and gave us the evil eye while pawing the ground, a sign that he was thinking of charging. Several people were attacked in this past year by Bison in Yellowstone including a nine-year old girl and we slowly backed away and then gave him a wide berth when we encountered him again coming back down the trail.

This big guy did not like us when he saw us on the trail to Sour Lake in the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone. He eyed us and pawed the ground as we slowly backed away and disappeared as quickly as we could, though not without snapping a few photos in the process.

Sour Lake gets its name from the sulfuric acid that is formed in the lake by microorganisms that produce the sulfuric acid when they feed on the sulfur in the lake. The water in the lake, though pleasantly hot, would take your skin off with its acidity.

Black Dragon's Cauldron is at the back of the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone National Park and is reached by a short trail from the parking area. It is a large pot of seething gray mud and is a relatively new feature of the Yellowstone landscape. It first formed in 1948 and has moved south since then about 200 feet (60 meters), a good example of Yellowstone's ever-changing hydrothermal features. The insets show the lower part of the Mud Volcano area with the trail to this feature leading off into the background, Sour Lake, which is next to Black Dragon's Mouth and which has been affected by its formation, and a feathered spectator photographed nearby,

This is the lower part of the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone National Park with the trail to Sour Lake and Black Dragon's Cauldron leading off into the background.

Sour Lake is at the back of the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone National Park. It is about the temperature of bathwater but would take off your skin since it is full of sulfuric acid. It is reached by a short trail from the parking area.

Photographed near the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone, this Canadian Goose was apparently basking in the steam from one of the hydrotherrmal features of the area.

This hot spring, Dragon's Mouth Spring, is one of the features of the Mud Volcano area of Yellowstone National Park.

South of Hayden Valley and on the east side of the lower loop of Yellowstone's main road is the mud volcano area, an area of boiling mud pots, fumaroles, and hot springs. It is one of the worst-smelling areas as well. The main area is near the road and there is a short loop around some of the main features. There is also a short trail up the hill and back to Sizzling Basin, Sour Lake andd Black Dragon Cauldron. These photos are all of features in the lower area, this of Mud Volcano itself.