EASTERN SECTION - Yellowstone Treasures - page 193

Fishing Bridge Junction to Canyon Junction

The Name of This Ford
The name used for many years for this spot, Buffalo Ford, stems from a winter about 50
years ago when two rangers discovered several bison frozen in the ice here. However, Nez
Perce Ford has been the official name since 1981. Here the Nez Perce crossed the river as
they were fleeing the U.S. Army in 1877, attempting to reach Canada. Their route began in
Idaho and ended in northern Montana, where they were finally forced to surrender.

5.0/10.4 Nez Perce Ford picnic area side road. No fishing is allowed in the
west channel of the river here. Above and below this stretch of the river are areas extremely
popular with fishermen, even though it's for catch and release only. According to data col-
lected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the same trout may be caught and released nine
times in one season.

5.4/10.0 Parking for river access and informal trails to two springs. The closer bubbling
spring is surrounded by grasses, but the one in sparse trees and nearer the river, Cold Water
Geyser, has a considerable rock crater and a crevice filled with water and bubbles of carbon
dioxide. It erupted more or less regularly for about 50 years of the twentieth century and occa-
sionally since then. In 1912 at least one tourist party used it as a natural bathtub. The carbon
dioxide that powered this geyser is probably derived from the limestones below the caldera's
volcanic rocks. There's a similar geyser near Green River, Utah.

5.8/9.6 Turnoff for Mud Volcano.

MUD VOLCANO AREA
If you have only a short time to spend, be sure to see Dragon's Mouth Spring and Mud Volcano
at the north end of the walkway. For a longer visit, you might want to pick up a pamphlet from
the box near the parking lot and follow the walk described below.
Unlike the water-driven basins of geysers and hot pools you find on the western Grand
Loop Road, Mud Volcano is a vapor-driven system. Here steam rather than water rises from
deep underground, and rain and snowmelt provide most of the water to the features. Before
railings and boardwalks, early tourists considered the place “most repulsive and terrifying.”
Near the center of the parking area's edge is Mud Caldron, a large, bubbling, gray lake that
seems to have worn away or blown out the cliff behind it. In 1999, a hole created by hydro-