Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1916-09-13
CARLETON CURR|E
DESCRIBES TRIP
THROUGH THE WEST
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ewing to the altitude which aver
ages eight thousand feet it is warm
when the sun shines and cool when
doudy and always at night with
frosty mornings and occasionally a
snowstorm. Some snow stays the
year around on the highest peaks. 1t
seldom rains, however.
& We started Monday noon, August
ID from Gardiner, following the Gar
diner river to Mammoth Hot Springs.
These are great hills on the mountain
side composed of calcium carbonate
(sommon lime). Hot water boils up
containing the dissolved mineral mat
t0 and collecting in steaming pools,
SEINE of a beautiful blue color, over
low and trickle down the terrace,
cooling and leaving the dissolved min
erals on the steps. Thus the under
lying color of the terrace is gray but
other minerals produce most beauti-
full streaks and bands usually vary
ing from brown-and-red to yellow.
Here also is the Devils Kitchen, a
long, narrow chasm about thirty feet
deep and quite warm and dry inside.
Leaving there we passed on to the
Hoodoos, great, huge, gray boulders
lying all about in the greatest confu-
sion and through Silver Gate between
some of these rocks. Then we fol-
low along Glen Greek to Golden Gate,
where the road passes around high
cliff on a viaduct of concrete. Farther
on we go around Obsidian Cliff, COM
| posed of exceedingly hard mineral
glass, black and opaque. 1t was
formerly used for arrowheads by the
Indians. The next point of interest is
Roaring Mountain so called because a
short time ago escaping steam pro-
duced a roaring sound. 1t has now
ceased roaring.
We came to the next loop at Norris
Geyser Basin which we visited after
supper for we stayed over night near
there. There are hundreds of geysers
around there but none play very
high and most of them just boil
violently. The next morning we
started for the Upper Geyser Basin
twenty miles away. During the fore
noon we followed the Gibbon river to
Madison then up the Firehole river,
stopping for lunch on its bank, to the
Lower Geyser Basin with its many
geysers and paint-pots which are
pools of boiling mud, gray-and-pink
in color. Going on we came to Ex-
CelSlOT NeySeT NOW al
ed pool Of blue water about twenty
feet below the ground. 1t is no long
er active. We reached the Upper
Geyser Basin at mid-afternoon on
Tuesday and STAYED until Wednesday
noon. Here are found the best gey-
sers of the park, among which are
Old Faithful; Castle, supposed to be
the oldest because of its large forma-
ton; Giantess; Giant, the highest in
the world, throwing a stream $50 feet
into the air; Beehive, playing 200 feet
high; Riverside, on the river bank;
Grotto, with a peculiar grotto-like
formation; Lion; Lioness and Cubs;
and Grand. Old Faithful is the
popular geyser of the park and typical
of the best so / will describe it only.
1t plays quite regularly every seven
ty-fve minutes and from 125 to $50
feet. The formation composed of the
mineral matter deposited from the
water is roughly cone-shaped with the
opening at the apex. Around this
opening a rough, irregular hole from
which the water rushes, are numer-
Gus pools of water with beautiful
bottoms of a delicate orange color.
Between eruptions one can go up and
look into the tube" and see Or hear
the boiling water several teet down
below the surface. Just before it
plays, this boiling becomes more viol-
emit until the water shoots out several
feet in spurts and at last with a
mighty rush the stream of boiling wa
ter goes up to its maximum height,
all white and giving off clouds of
steam. This continues for a minute
or less and then the height becomes