A Short and Worthy Morning Hike to the Artist Paintpots at the Gibbon Geyser Basin

Blood Geyser

Date: July 18, 2020

Place: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Coordinates:  44.696920, -110.741112

Length: 1 miles

Level: easy plus

 

When I started writing about my road trip with four youth (my chickas and their friends) in the summer of 2020 I thought I'd write only about the main hikes we did. After all, it has been nearly four years now. I didn't think to include the short ones, but as I looked through the photos I decided to write about them too. This blog serves primarily as my hiking memories album and I don't want to forget about any part of that crazy and wonderful trip we did. 

The morning of July 18, our second day in Yellowstone, we had to break camp and pack up everything. I was unable to reserve a campsite in the park ahead of time, but each morning I made sure I was the first at the camp host station, asking about cancellations. We were lucky in the sense that we did get into a cancelled campsite each of the three nights we were in Yellowstone, but none of them was our camp site, or even within the same campground, so we had to have everything packed up in the car and hauled with us during our day's tour until evening when we could check in the next campsite. All that procedure of breaking camp ate away some time from our morning. By the time we were in Yellowstone however, we have already formed a good camping routine and each of us knew what to do and how to do it. We have become quite efficient about it. 

In the previous post I wrote about our morning hike in the magnificent Norris Geyser Basin. The Norris Geyser hike however, was not the first hike we did that day. The first hike was a short and sweet walk on the Artists' Paintpots trail within the Gibbon Basin, just south of the Norris Basin. 

Our hike as captured by my GPS

 From the parking area we took the wide, flat trail south. In front of us loomed a beautiful, mild-sloped butte covered with a conifer forest.  The Artists' Paintpots area was just below that butte. 

The access trail didn't have geothermal features near it, but there were lovely wildflowers blooming along side the path. 

Fringed Gentian, Gentianopsis detonsa,

The access trail was an easy walk and we quickly reached the loop trail that goes around the Artists' Paintpots geothermal area. All the way on the other side of the geothermal area we could see a small geyser erupting. 

We turned left at the loop trail junction, and walked it clockwise. Soon we crossed the little surface flow that drained the water pf the geothermal features out into the forest where it cooled off. The creek was colorful and full of algae, making the best of the warm, mineral-rich water.

For a few steps we had a full view of the meadow behind the creek. A few dead trees remained standing in the middle of that meadow, indicating a past death event, possibly a fire. 

Meadow

There were more wildflowers blooming between the grasses and rushes in the meadow. I think it was the first time that I've seen a paintbrush plant in Yellowstone on that trip. 

Paintbrush, Castilleja sp. 

We arrived at a good view point of the Blood Geyser and stopped there for a while to take a good look. It was so named because of its deep red color, caused by ferrous oxide deposits. The geyser, which was not very high, erupted continuously, shooting gusts of water spurts into the air. A column of steam extended from the geyser and drifted off int the air. 

Blood Geyser

Off to the side of the Blood Geyser was a bubbling pool of very clear, blue water. It actually looked a very inviting hot spring. I wouldn't have dared to take a dip in it, though. 

The trail ascended on the hillside above the blue hot spring and the Blood Geyser. With the added height we had a nice view of the colorful basin downstream of the geyser. 

The grassy area on the hillside also held some surprising sights, such as the Spiranthes orchids. Later we would see some of them even closer and prettier on the Norris Geyser Basin hike, which I've already posted about. 

Irish Lady's Tresses, Spiranthes romanzoffiana

From up the hill we could also see where the creek widened and the water pooled into a lovely forest pond. We were on the lookout for wildlife as well, but so far we haven't seen much besides insects. 

From the highest point of the trail we had the best overall view of the Artists' Paintpots area. Indeed it looked like a paint palette tht was spilled over a flat, green canvas. The color mixture was fantastic.

Artists' Paintpots Basin

Frm above it was also possible to see all the spring holes where the geothermal water was seeping up, either peacefully or in violent geyser bursts, above ground. Every drop of the geothermal water carries molecules of minerals which are, in this place, of the colorful kind, such as iron oxide. 

Artists' Paintpots

The rest of the color spectrum was taken care of by thermophilic microorganisms. This really is a very unique and beautiful place and I\m glad I didn't skip writing about it. On my lates visit in Yellowstone with my sister we didn't get to see the Artists' Paintpots and it was great looking through the pictures and bringing up my memories of this place from my July 2020 trip there with the youth. 

We continued along the trail which circled the colorful geothermal basin. Wildflowers decorated the path between the geothermal features. Little floral sunshines  blooming at the big sun in the sky.

Groundsel

The trail curved around the basin, following the contour of the hillside, descending slowly too. We were nearing the area after which this place was named: Artists' Paintpots. 

One of the geothermal features we've seen on that side of the basin was a pasty cement-like mud pool. It looked weird enough To hold my attention for some time. 

Mud Pool

The pasty mud was bubbling too, although in a more slow motion -like spurts. I took a series of photos of this mesmerizing motion and managed to catch a mud sprite as it popped from the more liquid part of the pool. 

Bubbling Mud

Eventually we made it all the way back down to the level of the basin itself. Once again we had that lovely forested butte in view. 

Once again near the creek I spotted wildlife - a pretty dragonfly sitting on a small bare twig above the water. The dragonfly wasn't very close and my camera lens wasn't strong enough so I called my chika to take a photo of the pretty insect with her birding camera. It wasn't a bird but it did have wings. 

Dragonfly

Near closing the loop were geothermal water holes That looked exactly as one would think a paintpot looks like. Actually, they looked more like a cup of used paintbrush cleaning water. 

As a natural feature, it was indeed beautiful and unique. I liked the texture and ferrous oxide mineral deposits on the pools' sides. 

When we completed the Artists' Paintpots loop trail I turned around and gazed once more at the Blood Geyser, which was still shooting water all over on the other side of the basin. 

It was a lovely little hike and I am glad to have remembered it again. After completing this hike we drove the short distance north to the Norris Geyser Basin where we hiked a larger loop trail through a very, very different geothermal are. Very close geographically, yet a completely different experience. 

The trail out of the Artists' Paintpots area.