Ranger Sarah has arrived at Yellowstone National Park. She is ready to start her winter adventure in the park.

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Ranger Sarah at the start of the Upper Terrace Ski Loop at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah finds her first feature, Angel Terrace. Located in the upper terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs. These travertine terrace deposits form where hot water saturated with dissolved calcium and bicarbonate migrates to the surface. As spring water spills over the lip of the pools, carbon dioxide escapes as gas, and calcium carbonate is precipitated (forming travertine).

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Ranger Sarah skis up the freshly set trail along the Upper Terrace Ski loop at Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs.

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Ranger Sarah is a little tired after climbing up a long hill during her ski adventure on the Upper Terrace Ski Loop in Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah has skied to White Elephant Back Terrace. A fissure right through this part of the Upper Terrace of Mammoth Hot Springs allows hot water saturated with calcium carbonate to reach the surface. The calcium carbonate precipitates out of the water to form a terrace along the entire length of the fissure.
— at Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah finds another small fissure in the trees a short distance from the larger White Elephant Back Terrace fissure.
— at Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah has arrived at Orange Spring Mound. Orange Spring Mound get its name from its dark orange appearance caused by orange cyanobacteria living on the travertine, the rock that it is made of.
— at Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah views Orange Spring Mound. This spring flows from vents from its top and side. Orange Mound Spring is thermally cooler (~170˚F) than most springs in Yellowstone and at the Mammoth Hot Springs themselves, allowing the orange-tinted cyanobacteria to thrive and color the spring a darker shade of orange than the rest of the Mammoth Terraces. Depending on the nutrients that the bacteria receive, the color may change throughout the year
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Ranger Sarah with the sun shinning through the clouds above Orange Spring Mound. Orange Spring Mound is considered to be very old due to the shape and size of the mound as well as how little water flows out of the spring itself.
— at Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah takes in the view as she skis down the hill on Yellowstone's Upper Terrace Ski Loop
— at Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah takes in the view of Prospect Terrace. Prospect Terrace is a dormant travertine terrace with only minor recorded hot springs activity. It was given its name in the late 1880s by a U.S Geological Service party led by Arnold Hague. It was previously referred to as the “Eleventh Terrace” earlier in the 1800s.
— at Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah looks at another feature along the Upper Terrace Ski Loop. With no sign visible, Ranger Sarah used a map to try to figure out the name of this feature. She believes it might be a prominent point on the old inactive Highland Terrace known as "The Buttress".
— at Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah skis along the trail as it goes around a water flow crossing the upper terrace road which the trail usually follows.
— at Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah watches the flow of hot water from the Narrow Gauge Terrace area of the Upper Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone.

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Ranger Sarah looks down on the Mammoth Hot Springs Area of Yellowstone National Park.
— at Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah reads about Fort Yellowstone which can be made out in the distance in the Mammoth Hot Springs area of Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah looks down at the top of the main terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah sets out to do more skiing in Yellowstone. This time she will venture out on the trails in the Tower area.

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Speed Limit 25, Ranger Sarah takes that as a challenge while skiing the Tower Ski Trails at Yellowstone NP.

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Ranger Sarah looks across the Yellowstone River at a well-defined columnar structure at the top of the canyon. These are lava flows known as the basalt of the Narrows and that erupted about 1.3 million years ago. These columnar structures formed due to slow cooling of hot material.

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Ranger Sarah learns about the Calcite Springs.

Calcite Springs was named for the milky-white calcite crystals that cover the area. Mixed in with the calcite are translucent, honey-colored barite crystals. Inside the conduits of hot spring are beautiful but smelly yellow sulfur crystals.

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@AdventuresofRangerSarah calcite, sulfur, petroleum and barite. what a delightful place!

surely there are some other VERY curious minerals there! maybe even organic ones?

Ranger Sarah at Calcite Springs. The heat underground releases deposits of oil from rocks deep below which slowly and sporadically seep to the surface.
The springs are hot enough at depth to liquefy large quantities of sulfur. Occasionally, the molten sulfur oozes the surface.
Contact with air causes the liquid sulfur to turn to black, it is impossible to tell by looking if the dark areas are oil and sulfur.

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Ranger Sarah skis back towards the trailhead for the Tower Ski Trail in Yellowstone. She likes heading this way, it's all down hill.

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Ranger Sarah skis down the hill along the Tower Ski Trails in Yellowstone. The falling snow is slowing the trail down.

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Ranger Sarah takes a break from skiing to take a look at Rainy Lake, she says it looks more like a snowy lake today.
— at Yellowstone National Park.

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Ranger Sarah looks across the snowy landscape as she nears the trail head at Tower Junction in Yellowstone.

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