Someone dropped a box of yellow crayons in this hot water. Now, the algae and sulfur crystals can’t stop coloring! Just kidding, there’s no crayons in this natural color field.

Roosevelt Hot Springs Geothermal Area, Beaver County, Utah
Photographer: Mark Milligan; © 2015

Yellow sulfur crystals and various colors of bacteria and algae give these hissing steam vents and bubbling pools an otherworldly look. This landscape is a recent and evolving phenomenon resulting from changing groundwater levels associated with nearby geothermal power generation.