Letting off some steam

So, you might wonder what it's like to be with the same three people for 24 hours for 27 days straight. Well, sometimes you have to vent a little.... 

But, if some of us got a little thin-skinned at times, it was nothing compared to earth's crust in Yellowstone, which was a cauldron of bubbling hot liquid, shooting and steaming through a volatile landscape. In places, it looked like we had entered an apocalyptic landscape, or perhaps another planet altogether:

We had been warned by our friends, the Reiserts (also experienced in family travel) about the pit of despair: we wondered, had we finally stumbled upon it?

The fantastic colors in some of the geological formations were actually tiny life forms called thermophiles that are giving scientists ideas about the possibility of life on other planets:

After a few days, though, we had our fill of fumaroles, hot springs, mud pots, and silicious sinter, not to mention the "eau de sulphur." We all needed to take a hike.