Yellowstone Park 3
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 12:54 pm
Above: This is the Firehole River Canyon. The Firehole and the Gibbon River, to the north, join at Madison Junction to make the Madison River. The Firehole River gets its name because it drains all of the hot springs and geyser basins to the south, and the River is always warm year 'round. These rivers are normally quite chilly, but the Firehole is rather pleasant. Unfortunately, the place where we used to go down and where we used to take the kids to swim in the River has been closed since we used to visit regularly.
-- Fri Jul 08, 2011 1:25 --
Falls on the Firehole. Of course, the famous large falls are the Upper and Lower Falls in Yellowstone Canyon, and the Tower Falls, but we didn't get the time to see them on this trip.
Continuing south, we started entering the area of thermal activity.
A small hot spring. Normally, one can tell the temperature of the water by the color of the algae growing on the edges, but none is present here. This is right on the bank of the Firehole River.
A thermal basin on the other side of the river. Now you can see why it stays warm.