If Yellowstone is Oz, then there must be witches, and you can see the cauldrons bubbling north, south, east, and west. More than 10,000 geothermal features can be found within the confines of Yellowstone.
Hot springs exist all through the park, extending into nearby areas like Chico. A hot spring works like this: Rain water sinks slowly through the porous rock at the surface and, after thousands of years, collects underground. The water is heated by the massive pool of magma that lurks deep under Yellowstone. Underground convection currents continuously exchange this superheated water with the colder liquid sinking down through the rocks. Eventually, the ancient boiling water seeps to the surface once more. At the surface, hot springs can form simple pools, limestone cones, or complex terraces like those at Mammoth Hot Springs.
Geysers work like hot springs, except that somewhere near the surface, a constriction exists that prevents the water from bubbling up normally. Pressure builds in the geysers until at some point the superheated water bursts through the constriction and erupts through to the surface. Geysers like Old Faithful are the most iconic feature of the park.
Mud pots are another geothermal feature abundant in Yellowstone. These are boiling pools of sulphuric acid mixed with melted rock; they bubble and toil and smell like rotten eggs.
Another form of hot spring, called steam vents or fumaroles, have more heat than water. The water boils off and escapes the ground as steam. You can see whole hillsides dotted with these vents, looking like a landscape from an episode of Star Trek.
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