09 Dec 19 Let's do one more from Artist Paintpots before moving on to something different, a break from YNP if you will. Last week we left off at the base of the paintpots thermal area and today we'll conclude with a shot from the top. What you are seeing is how the area looks that is drying up. All that remains of the active small hot springs is what I've photographed. There are many of these areas within the park, and most of them are never seen by the visitors. To give you an idea as to what is available to see if you are willing to do some hiking, I'm providing a quote from Wikipedia: " A study that was completed in 2011 found that a total of 1,283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone, 465 of which are active during an average year. These are distributed among nine geyser basins, with a few geysers found in smaller thermal areas throughout the Park. The number of geysers in each geyser basin are as follows: Upper Geyser Basin (410), Midway Geyser Basin (59), Lower Geyser Basin (283), Norris Geyser Basin (193), West Thumb Geyser Basin (84), Gibbon Geyser Basin (24), Lone Star Geyser Basin (21), Shoshone Geyser Basin (107), Heart Lake Geyser Basin (69), other areas (33). Although famous large geysers like Old Faithful are part of the total, most of Yellowstone's geysers are small, erupting to only a foot or two. The hydrothermal system that supplies the geysers with hot water sits within an ancient active caldera. Many of the thermal features in Yellowstone build up sinter, geyserite, or travertine deposits around and within them." Where these drying hot springs are located the underlying thermal activity has simply moved to the right of the area shown and is creating new features. The same kind of movement can be seen at Mammoth Hot Springs as I mentioned in previous narratives. One could visit the park and just visit the thermal areas and nothing else. To take them all in would likely require a month or longer, but you could see see all those near the Grand Loop Road (the 2 lane roadway that forms an 8 inside the park) in a single day, provided you can push your way through the crowds.
Other than a small amount of dodging & burning, this is what the camera recorded. Saying Goodby Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 200; 1 / 320 sec @ f / 9.