We visited yet another geyser basin in Yellowstone yesterday.  This one is right on the edge of Yellowstone Lake and has a lot of variety in the type of geysers, mud pots and hot springs in one small area.

There’s one geyser actually in the lake, pictured above. It’s called Fishing Hole Geyser and it’s a few feet above the lake in the late summer/early fall when the water level in the lake falls.  This next photo (not taken by me) shows it in Sept when it’s sticks up above the water level.  It’s called Fishing Hole Geyser because, back in the 1930s before there was much done to preserve and protect the natural resources, visitors to the park would catch a fish in the lake right near the geyser and then dip the fish, still on the line, into the geyser and bring out a cooked fish ready to eat!  (Due to the arsenic and other toxic chemicals in geysers, you wonder that it didn’t kill people who would eat those fish!)

The water in the hot springs is quite hot, usually between 175 and 198 degrees Farenheit.  We saw some small bones at the edge of one spring and the ranger explained that a few years ago a baby elk wandered into the spring and was immediately killed and boiled.  Rangers were alerted and came and pulled out most of the carcass, but the lower part had already started to fall apart and was left in the shallow water.  They removed the rest of it to prevent predators coming by and either getting injured/killed or causing damage to the natural resource.

Some of the hot springs near the lake are a beautiful blue, and others are a more yellow/orange color.  The color range is due to the different chemicals found in the various hot springs, most of which have separate water sources!  Here are more pictures: