Running in Yellowstone…

Too high, too … well … stinky. I ran the Firehole Lake loop for a number of reasons. The most important reason had to do with not being eaten by a grizzly bear. After my incident in the Black Hills (see June 3rd post) we decided that it would not be wise to do any wilderness running here at this time of year. The campground we wanted was supposed to be open but was closed because it had been reserved by grizzly bears coming out of hibernation to do their annual spring fishing on the lake. We also knew that running the back country in this area was too dangerous due to the high probability of running headlong into a wandering grizzly with cubs. Not a good idea especially since when one is running one can’t pay attention to be careful for what is ahead and well, do I really need to spell it out?

We didn’t want me to turn a corner and surprise a pair of grizzly cubs or even worse, trip over one and maybe kick another one off a cliff or something. Try explaining that to a momma grizzly. As to the elevation well it was around the 7000 foot mark which I am not trained for. And the sulfurous gases from the Norris and Upper Geyser basins were really getting to me after a few days. So I decided to do just over a 5 km run on asphalt around Firehole lake.

I’ll throw in a few pictures here with a few comments, but the run was pretty ordinary expect for the location. The only surprising thing that happened was that halfway through my run I met a girl going the other way on that loop who was also jogging. A smile and a wave and that’s about it for that run.

And now some pictures and comments about Yellowstone. There are many more but I can post just a few.

The colors red, green, brown, etc are caused by bacterial and algal growth. These colors reflect different species adapted to different water temperatures. The hottest water is free of these and is very clear, reflecting the sky and is consequently very blue, sometimes azure. In the case of the Emerald pool, this very hot water is blue and there are yellow sulfur deposits in the pool which create a sort of surreal emerald color. The next hottest water is red, followed by green which is the coolest. Some pools are still and every few hours to days to years they suddenly erupt into full blown geysers. Some are empty, erupting into geysers only when the pool fills. There are geyser watchers who point out sometimes reliable indicators as to when a certain geyser is likely to blow. For example, one indicator might be that a minor side pool must fill with water before the main geyser erupts. So when the minor side pool fills, you now that the main geyser will erupt within the hour or so. Anyway they hang around and radio each other if they see an indicator. I gather some of them stay through the night if they think something might happen. What a weird hobby.

A geyser called the “Grotto” is in the upper geyser basin. It sure looks like an angel emerging from the ground! We did not see this one go off, but we did see a few others. Although Old Faithful is a great American icon, it is not the most spectacular by far. There are many others in Yellowstone that are more interesting. It is just popular because it is easily visible from a nice parking lot/hotel area and is reasonably reliable, erupting every 90 minutes or so.

Iron Creek in the Black Sand Basin shows a geyser going off, and also the Firehole River being very blue as it was overcast that day:

We went to Mammoth Hot Springs and it was very much dead in terms of spring activity. When we last visited this place in the early 1990’s the entire area was very active, hot and flowing. Now the famous formations have lost their color (since they are dry and the bacteria/algae are not growing) and they are crumbling into dust. Except for a few active areas which you can discern from the great color they display. The point is the volcanics in Yellowstone are a constantly changing feature. Every earthquake changes the ground water flow regime and it remains a dynamic active area. Why they even had to erect a barrier in a parking lot area because of a new hot steam eruption that ate a big hole in the asphalt:

That last picture emphasizes the contrast and the ever changing flux between life on the edge of an active volcanic region. Trees are killed by hot springs and when hot springs fade or change location life comes back. The following pictures show that “life will find a way”…

Bison, elk, and other tracks are often found in areas where we are prohibited to walk due to the danger of falling through a thin crust and into a boiling cauldron. The other picture is of one of two resurgent domes formed by rising magma within the earth. I think this one is called the Sage Creek dome.

Finally, when we first entered the park we found a coyote who was aggressively playing (attacking?) a huge black bear. The coyote would nip at the bears’ heels and the bear would jump up and they danced around each other for quite some time before the bear moved off and so did we. We speculate that the coyote was protecting her den from the bear, but it is only a speculation. We also saw a coyote den in some rock cliffs by the road in another area and were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one baby but were unable to get a picture.