These shots are from my first winter in Yellowstone.  I arrived in the park late, and was supposed to work at Old Faithful Snow Lodge, but the government was out of money and the park was shut down.  So I got to stay at Mammoth for a week or two, didn't have to work, and got free snowmobile rentals and free ski rentals and lessons, and free hot tub time.  The company didn't want it's employees to quit.  The people at Snowlodge got nothing, but they couldn't easily quit, they were stranded there.  Eventually I did make it to Snowlodge, but I enjoyed my time at Mammoth.

Sort of a frozen waterfall at Mammoth Hot Springs, early winter.  The springs at Mammoth deposit a mineral called travertine, a form of calcium carbonate.  Because of this the formations here are very different than in most of Yellowstone's other thermal areas.  They grow much more rapidly than those in the geyser basins, and have a tendency to form a series of pools - the "terraces".

Some frosty grass and twigs beside a hot spring runoff channel, Mammoth, December '95.

Minerva Terrace, Mammoth Hot Springs.  In recent years Minerva has been one of the more active springs at Mammoth, but activity here shifts around frequently.

Looking up at the Main Terrace, Mammoth Hot Springs.  This particular portion of the terrace has no hot water flowing over it, no colorful hot spring algae, so it looks gray and dull (the white is snow).  I liked the formations though.  Kind of reminds me of the painting "The Scream".

Orange Mound Spring, on the Upper Terrace Drive at Mammoth.  No elaborate series of terraces here, just a big steep mound, probably built up by a small steady flow of hot water, something like the now extinct Liberty Cap.  The upper Terrace Drive is a narrow one way loop road through the upper portion of Mammoth Hot Springs.  You get around the lower portion by way of boardwalks.

Looking back toward Mammoth Hot Springs with the sun lighting up the steam columns.

The Boiling River, a few miles from Mammoth.  It is not actually boiling, but pretty hot.  This big hot spring rises from a sort of sinkhole in some old travertine deposits, then flows as a good size stream maybe 100 yards or so, and pours in groups of short, hot water falls and cascades into the Gardner River.

Near Indian Creek campground, Yellowstone National Park.  This was on the first cross country ski trip I ever took.  I wound up skiing to work every day this particular winter and the next.

Roaring Mountain, on the road south of Mammoth.  The side of the mountain here is covered with steam vents (a.k.a. fumaroles), some of which used to roar in the old days.  This was taken on one of those free snowmobile trips.

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e-mail Chris Johnson (j.charles@lycos.com)