Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Obsidian is hard and brittle and fractures with very sharp edges. As long as 8,800 years
ago, Native American Indians obtained obsidian here and made extremely sharp and valuable
cutting and piercing tools, which were traded extensively and have been found in archaeolo-
gical digs as far away as Ohio.
The area away from the road is now closed to the public, but you can easily see some fine
big specimens of obsidian right along the roadside south of the cliff. Other places in the park
have outcrops of obsidian but are difficult to see.
The small gazebo that houses exhibits is itself worth looking at. It was built in 1931 from
columns of quarried volcanic rock reassembled for this structure.
13.1/7.9
Beaver Lake. What lake? you may ask, since it's now largely a swampy meadow. Over
many years, beavers have repeatedly dammed this lake. In fact, at one time a beaver dam
said to be about 1,000 feet (300 m) long and the largest in the park stretched across the lake's
northern end where the outlet is.
13.4/7.6
Beaver Lake picnic area to the west. To the east a few yards up the small
creek is a fumarole that gives of the rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulfide.
13.7/7.3
The road passes under an electric transmission line and Lemonade Creek at about
this point. The upper stretches of the creek really are the color of lemonade or maybe limeade.
In
Yellowstone Place Names,
Whittlesey quotes a story about stagecoach drivers who carried
a “small bag of sugar along to treat their party to cold lemonade hardly distinguishable from
the real article.” In fact, not only is the clear green water warm and acidic, but it has recently
been found to contain an arsenic-eating alga—and arsenic, of course.
13.8/7.2
Short road to the
Solfatara Trailhead
to the east. Sometimes closed due to bear
activity, this trail follows a power line and the tourist road built in 1878, passing near Am-
phitheater Springs and Lake of the Woods. The trail continues about 6 miles (10 km) to the
Norris Campground.
The hot spring area called
Amphitheater Springs
may have been named for its location
in a sort of natural amphitheater or because boulders in the area look like seats carelessly ar-
ranged. Native American Indians passing through this area found vermilion (mercuric sulf-
ide, a red pigment).
14.6/6.4 Grizzly Lake Trailhead
and “Fire Weather” interpretive sign. The lake is a steep 2
miles (3 km) up the trail, which joins the Mount Holmes Trail in another 1.5 miles (2.4 km).