Fountain Paint Pot - Yellowstone National Park - Hot Springs on Waymarking.com

Fountain Paint Pot is a classical Mud Pot, probably the best example of a mud pot in all of Yellowstone. What you see here depends on what time of the year you visit. In early summer the mud is thin and watery, by late summer, the mud has become quite thick. Bubbling caused by steam changes as the mud thickens.

A great picture of Fountain Paint Pot bubbling can be found at Wikipedia

We were there in July and there were mud and bubbles. Here are more pictures (1, 2, 3). It was the peak of tourist season and there were thousands of people! Because of its proximity to the main road, this is probably the most visited area in the entire park next to Old Faithful. Therefore, we cut our visit short and visited only the other two features nearby:

	Celestine Spring A blue colored hot spring right next to the parking lot. No documentation exists of how the pring was named but its blue color does seem to match the deep blue of the sky. Here is a larger picture of Celestine Spring.
	Silex Spring Silex is Latin for silica, the major component of rhyolite, the primary volcanic rock in Yellowstone. Silica dissolves better in hot water than in cold water. It lines the bottom of Silex Spring and forms terraces along the runoff channels. for larger pictures of Silex Spring click here (1, 2)		Silex Spring is a perfect example for the living thermometer provided by thermophile microorganisms living in the overflow. The green, mats are mostly cyanobacteria, which can live in waters as hot as 165°F. They become orange, rust or brown as the water cools. Here is a larger picture of the bacterial mats. For more on the living thermometer, check "The Colors of Noris" at our Norris Geyser Basin waymark.