Day 1:
About 7 km from North of Norris is a large, hot, acidic and desolate area that smells of sulfur. Some distance from the parking lot rises a mountain. It is not very tall, perhaps some 130 m above where we park. This is Roaring Mountain known for its fumaroles - volcanic gases mixed with steam escaping through tiny cracks in the rock. This might be an audible affair and that's why the name "Roaring".
To take a closer look one will need binoculars or some kind of zooming equipment - be it a camera or a digiscope.
Digiscoping has become quite popular in recent years, especially for the bird photographers but it could work well right here as well.
Those interested in graphic views might want to spend some time as the vapors constantly change their appearance and direction.
Hot gases streaming out of the mountain are loaded with sulfur and that is good news for sulfur-loving thermophiles. They surround the vents to ambush the stinky steam and use some of the gases to obtain energy. Having done so, they discard their waste and it, eventually, forms yellow crystals.The sulfur compounds in the environment react with water forming sulfuric acid. And the acid in turn reacts with the rock - it seems to me that, the mountain is slowly eating itself out of existence.
It is time to continue on - our next stop: Mammoth Hot Springs.
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