West Thumb
The West Thumb hot spring area is right on Yellowstone Lake, only a couple miles
from the camp gound at Grant's Village where we stayed. It's a fairly active site, and part of Yelowstone Lake is the West Thumb Caldera. Incidentally, Yellowstone Lake is huge.To give you an idea of the size of the lake, I've marked that narrow neck of the lake where the Caldera connects to the rest of the lake. I also
marked it on the pic below. That's what it looks like from the shoreline at West Thumb, which is basically opposite that narrowing on the caldera rim. You can take boats on the lake, but you're not going to want to ski. The wind whips up at a moments notice, and the water is cold. Typical is in the 40's.
This is one of the views from the boardwalk.
Some of the vents are physically in the lake itself.
These three pics are of our favorite hot spring at West Thumb, the Abyss Pool. It's 53 feet deep.
posted by Gordon @ 8/31/2005 06:48:00 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
So can you d anything in the lake, like boat or fish or is it protected. Some of those pools look like it could be like a big hot tub but is probably more like a pot of boiling water
It's open for boats. There's a couple marinas, and a lot of people canoe and kayak in there. The fishing I hear is pretty good. There's a lot of pics in the stores of guys with huge cutthroat and lake trout. They're trying to improve the native cutthroat population, so it's now mandatory to kill any lake trout you catch.
And yeah, those hot springs will kill you. Most of those pools like that in the park are around 160 - 190 F. I'll have to send you a copy of that Death in Yellowstone book I sent Dad. People who fall in those springs often take a day or two to die. When people at the scene try to take the victims clothes off, the skin usually comes off too.
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