Arsenic
Apollinaris
Beauty
Beryl
Butterfly
Cleopatra
Castle
Congress
Devil's Ear
Iron
Morning Glory
Pearl
Peanut
Sponge
Soda
Soda Butte
Three Craters
[Illustration: Mammoth Hot Springs]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Hot Springs Cone]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
_The Mammoth Hot Springs_
The structural features are the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and the
garrison of Fort Yellowstone, around which, and in the vicinity of the
springs, the landscape gardener has produced many beautiful effects.
Here are found the most remarkable terrace-building hot springs in the
world. The formation is calcareous, and the deposition by the waters has
built up through the centuries cataracts in stone of indescribable
beauty through which the paints from the earth have been mingled and
blended with a vividness of coloring and a perfection of shading that
none but the Master's hand could work.
The waters are of such extraordinary transparency that the eye can only
guess at their depth. They are held steaming and pulsating in great
over-hanging bowls, from which they gently flow down over the stony
cataracts, carving and decorating as they go. Jupiter and Pulpit
Terraces are the master-pieces of Nature here; but there are hundreds of
other curious and beautiful things to see. The drive to and from Norris
is alive with interest. It leads through the Golden Gate, and on the way
can be seen Obsidian Cliff, Roaring Mountain, Beaver and Twin Lakes and
other attractive and curious features of topography.
[Illustration: _Mammoth Hotel_]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
_The Tame Wild Animals_
The animals of the Park are objects of peculiar interest. No sound of
gun or bark of dog is ever heard, and the animals, though wild, have
become so tame that they give only curious notice to tourists as they
pass. Deer, elk and bear roam at will throughout Geyserland. The red
squirrel and the chipmunk scamper along the roadway, and those furry
little bundles, the wood-chucks, flatten out on the rocks and take no
heed of your passing. It is an everyday sight to see deer and their
young by the roadside, and now and then you get a glimpse of an antlered
elk, with his family of cows, swimming the streams of the Park. So much
has been accomplished by law in robbing man of his terrors to the wild,
that all of the animals in the Park, except those that--like the
mountain lion and sheep, frequent places inaccessible to travelers--have
well-nigh lost their fears.
The bears, some of them wrapped in robes that would command a fancy
price, come down in the evening from their homes in the hills to feed
around the hotels. The after-dinner entertainment they afford to guests
is an everyday pleasure.
[Illustration: _Feeding the Bear_]
[Illustration: The Giant Geyser]
[Illustration: Eagle Nest Rock]
[Illustration: _New Grand Canon Hotel_]
_The Inns_
They happen along at the end of each day's drive--great roomy structures
alive with light and full of comfort and good cheer. And such inns they
are--generous lobbies to lounge in before old-fashioned fire-places,
with their blazing, snapping logs--beds to sleep in, clean and
restful--prettily furnished rooms--and cookery and service almost too
good to be true. To find all these things in a far-away wilderness is to
wonder what magic was worked to bring them all about.
The great inn at Mammoth has in its foreground, three hundred feet high,
the wonderful, many-colored, and beautifully-formed Hot Springs Terraces
which belong in the list of the water-made wonders of the Park.
One of the inns--Old Faithful--cannot be matched anywhere in the
world. It is a lofty, wide-spreading structure of logs, with a
touch of Swiss about its gables and windows. Within, the logs are
everywhere--partitions, balustrades, stair-steps, and newel posts--even
the drinking fountain is a log. It must have been a mighty task to
search the forests for all the queer forms of growth that enter into the
construction of the curious, rustic interior. And the lobby, with its
four great cheerful fireplaces--its huge corn popper--its clock and
twenty-foot pendulum, and all the log-made galleries above it--that
charms and comforts beyond the power of words to tell.
[Illustration: _Old Faithful Inn_]
The inns are located nearby the greatest marvels of the Park and their
sites have been selected to show them off with admirable skill.
From the Fountain the geysers of the lower basin can be seen at their
play.
Old Faithful Inn looks out upon a great steaming, spouting field, and
has its namesake--the glory of all the geysers--almost at its doors. So
near, indeed, is it, that all the night through, at intervals of seventy
minutes, can be heard the old monster in eruption.
On a slope that sweeps gently down to the waters sits the Lake Inn. The
forest creeps down to it on three sides, and the outlook from its goodly
porches is over the broad expanse of Yellowstone Lake--one of the
highest of navigated seas, and as passive, clear and prettily
tree-trimmed a sheet of water as there is in the world. You may reach
this inn from Thumb by steamer or by coach; but if you would have two
hours of ecstacy, take the steamer. Thumb is a lunch station, and the
lunch there is a creation.
The Canyon Inn is almost on the brink of the gorge where falls the
Yellowstone. It is a duplication in excellence of the other inns, and
when you bid it good-bye it is to begin your last day's tour of the
Park. Then comes Norris, with its geysers and its awful "Black Growler,"
and a lunch that will send the tourist on his homeward way with a
grateful heart. After that--Yellowstone--and the whistle of the engine
and the waiting Pullman--your tour is ended and the Park a pleasant
memory.
[Illustration: Golden Gate]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Pulpit Terrace]
[Illustration]
_The Stage Line_
[Illustration: _Lone Star Geyser_]
The M. & Y. Stage Company, operating from Yellowstone, Montana (The
Oregon Short Line terminus at the western entrance to the Park) is
licensed by and is under the direct supervision of the United States
Government.
The line is equipped with elegant new two and four-horse Concord coaches
and two-horse surreys, and the finest of horses.
The coaches accommodate eight and eleven passengers, the surreys three
and five passengers. The drivers have been especially selected for the
service, are well informed, and will point out every interesting feature
of the Park.
The five days' coaching over the line of this Company takes in all
interesting sights in the Park, and every effort is made by the
management to secure the comfort and pleasure of passengers.
Stop-over privileges at any Park hotel are allowed without additional
stage charge; but twenty-four hours' advance notice must be given to the
Stage Company of the coach to be taken. Parties so desiring can arrange
for special coaches or surreys for the Park trip. For further
information regarding coaches and transportation facilities through the
Park, address F. J. Haynes, President M. & Y. Stage Company, St. Paul,
Minn., or Yellowstone Park, Wyo.