Before someone says it: the park changed the rules for thermal areas and now you can't approach them in the backcountry (good luck enforcing them); when I asked the rangers when I hiked this area, I was told that I could approach thermals as long as I did NOT hike thru them. Ok this is a super hot area in Yellowstone (google it) called the Phantom Fumarole. You reach it by hiking about fives miles in the Pitchstone Plateau trail. The fumarole is just gases but early in the season it is still has water from the winter. I read on an official report that scientists measuring the heat could not safely approach it for exact measurements.
This is what you see if you leave the trail for about 50 yards, but the fun part is on the other side of the thermal feature.
I saw lots of green and I followed it to an area of trees so I was well anchored with a closer view of the vents:
and this one:
I did take a few videos since that is a lot better:
I had more pics but this thing is complaining about image size, even though it is now just 2Mb. Oh well, the videos are a lot better.
This is what you see if you leave the trail for about 50 yards, but the fun part is on the other side of the thermal feature.
I saw lots of green and I followed it to an area of trees so I was well anchored with a closer view of the vents:
and this one:
I did take a few videos since that is a lot better:
I had more pics but this thing is complaining about image size, even though it is now just 2Mb. Oh well, the videos are a lot better.
