Yellowstone Stinks II: the Mud Volcano

The aptly-named Dragon's Mouth Spring.

You hear such a loud rumble here, that it's easy to imagine there's a smoking dragon inside its cave.

Not far from the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, and just a stone's throw from the bucolic LeHardy's Rapids, is the Martian landscape of the Mud Volcano Area.

The walking loop of the Mud Volcano Area starts with the Mud Caldron:

Mmm.  You also can smell the hydrogen sulfide gas.
 

Actually, when you are there, you can.

Less smelly from a distance.

This is the aptly-named Sizzling Basin:

Boiling mud.  I've not seen that before stepping foot in Yellowstone.

This must be the Churning Caldron.  Again, the air is redolent with the smell of hydrogen sulfide gas.

This is Sour Lake:

I'm guessing you don't drink the water from there.  And here is the eponymous Mud Volcano:

I was expecting something more volcanic, but, again, boiling, roiling mud is not something you see everyday.

On the other hand, completely living up to the hype is the Dragon's Mouth Spring.

There has got to be a dragon inside that cave to produce that much smoke and that loud of rumbling.  In all honesty, it's not necessarily a relaxing feeling knowing how very alive the earth is here inside the Yellowstone Super-Volcano Caldera.

Off to the Sulphur Caldron, up the road a few feet:

This is an amazing sight.  Right next to the beautiful, placid Yellowstone River is a smoking sulphur caldron:

And here I am enjoying the nature.

Next stop along the Figure 8:  the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  Unless I stop off somewhere en route.  As keeps happening.