Solfatara Trail

That's kind of a funny name for a trail, isn't it?  According to Merriam-Webster, solfatara is "a volcanic area or vent that yields only hot vapors and sulfurous gas."  The beginning of Solfatara Trail tended to have only fumaroles, and it started on the north side of Roaring Mountain, an area well-known to be solfatara.

Solfatara along the Solfatara Trail

Amphitheater Springs has a lot of solfatara too.

Tony and I hiked on that trail for about 15 miles on August 24.  Along the trail, we saw the fumaroles near the beginning, but then soon we saw that the trail followed a power line for several miles.  The area was heavily burned during the 1988 fire and many of the trees are less than 25 years old.  Being that young, the forest tended to be pretty thick too.  Along the trail, obsidian was strewn everywhere.  Jean would have been in heaven just seeing all that volcanic glass.  As well, geyserite was very common in the area.

Eventually we got the the Whiterock Springs area.  It seemed like a funny name since the volcanic landscape was actually reddish in color.  I guess that speaks to the constantly changing nature of Yellowstone Park's thermal features.  The hot pools of water smelled very similar to those in the Mud Volcano Area.  We had to cross some wood across a thermal runoff area that was bubbling from underground.  It didn't appear to be very dangerous, but I didn't really want to see how far down the mud in the runoff went down.

The Whiterock Springs area

The thermal runoff that went between hot springs

While hiking, Tony and I didn't see very much wildlife.  We saw four sandhill cranes, and a coyote who didn't want to stick around the area.

If you look closely, you can see a sandhill crane walking at the base of the trees.

After walking through a big, beautiful meadow, we got to the opposite end of the Solfatara Trail, at the Norris campground.  We ate lunch there and headed back the same way we came.  On the way back, we walked off-trail to Lake of Woods, a nice little lake with a lot of lily pads.

The hill behind Lake of the Woods is called The Landmark.

I hadn't ever hiked this far before, and I felt pretty proud of myself.  Besides that, I didn't even feel sore the next day!  I guess I'm in decent shape for hiking!