Hoodoo Hodunit?! (Yellowstone Monthly Update – April 2025)

Well look at this mess! What’s going on? 

We’re just south of Mammoth Hot Springs at a place informally known as the Hoodoos. The official designation for the area is Silver Gate, named by an early Yellowstone National Park visitor because of the way the road wound between the closely spaced white and gray boulders. 

Looking closely, you’ll see the boulders are travertine. They are from ancient, now-extinct travertine hot springs that probably once resembled the terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs. 

And the chaotic jumble? It’s almost as if a giant dumped a bunch of rocks into a big pile. That isn’t too far off from what actually happened. Silver Gate is a landslide. The source of the landslide is Terrace Mountain, high above the deposit. 

Get up-to-speed in this month's update from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (April 2025).