Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
18.3/7.7 Butte Springs,
a small thermal area north of the road. Fire damage from 2003 ex-
tends more than 10 miles from here east.
19.6/6.4
Two turnouts in this area afford excellent views of the lake at
Steamboat Point.
The lower turnout displays a sign about Mary Bay's hot lake bed. Geologist Albert C. Peale
wrote in 1878 that at this spot there was located “a powerful steam vent from which a vast
column of steam escapes with a continuous roar that exactly resembles the escape from a huge
steamboat,” but you can no longer hear that sound. The red stain on Steamboat's formation is
cinnabar,
mercuric sulfide, which is poisonous.
Steamboat Point has two hydrothermal features, Steamboat Spring and Locomotive Vent.
20.0/6.0
Turnout at
Holmes Point,
named for W. H. Holmes after the initials
W. H. H. were found on a rock here. Holmes was the artist and geologist with the 1872 and
1878 Hayden Surveys.
From this point the road follows
Mary Bay
of Yellowstone Lake for a while. Mary Bay was
named for Mary Force, the girlfriend of Henry Elliot, artist with the 1871 Hayden Survey.
Mary's name remains on the bay, though when Elliot returned home, he married someone
else.
The rounded forms and steep sides of Mary Bay attest to the fact that it is an explosion
crater. The Mary Bay crater dates back about 13,800 years. The bay has lots of underwater hot
springs and the hottest spot in the lake, measured at 212°F (100°C).
21.6/4.4
Beach Springs north of the road is a small thermal area that often gives of a strong
sulfur odor. Here the road is actually on a sandbar. The Beach Springs area was turned into a
lagoon by the buildup of sand and gravel washed in by wave action during storms, forming an
offshore bar.
