Loved these things - and had to have a few documented. I'll be working to clean these up using a few resources over time. Any help is appreciated, but wouldn't mind going for the most uncommon bacteria in each picture, as I work my way through the below list.

GO THERE! (After school starts in the middle of the week, of course)

These are the same area, at different levels of zoom, and the greater habitat is pretty bizarre.

Yellowstone NP Targets

Watch the Video absolutely fascinating. I wanted to bring a lazer temperature gun, but only decided to take this vacation the night before, and shotgunned everything into the car...

https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/life-in-extreme-heat.htm
https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/thermophilic-bacteria.htm
https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/thermophilic-communities.htm
https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Yellowstone_Hot_Springs

Cyanobacteria Calothrix

pH: 6–9
Temperature: 30–45°C (86–113°F)
Color: Dark brown mats
Metabolism: Photosynthesis by day; fermentation by night.
Location: Mammoth Hot Springs, Upper, Midway, and Lower geyser basins

Cyanobacteria Phormidium

pH: 6–8
Temperature: 35–57°C (95–135°F)
Color: Orange mats
Metabolism: Photosynthesis
Location: Mammoth Hot Springs, Upper, Midway, and Lower geyser basins

Cyanobacteria Oscillatoria

pH: 6–8
Temperature: 36–45°C (96–113°F)
Color: Orange mats
Metabolism: Photosynthesis; oscillating moves it closer to or away from light sources.
Location: Mammoth Hot Springs and Chocolate Pots

Cyanobacteria Synechococcus

pH: 7–9
Temperature: 52–74°C (126–165°F)
Color: Green mats
Metabolism: Photosynthesis by day; fermentation by night.
Location: Mammoth Hot Springs, Upper, Midway, and Lower geyser basins

Green Sulfur Chlorobium

pH: 6–9
Temperature: 32–52°C (90–126°F)
Color: Dense, dark green mats
Metabolism: Anoxygenic photosynthesis— produces sulfate and sulfur, not oxygen.
Location: Mammoth Hot Springs and Calcite Springs

Green nonsulfur Chloroflexus

pH: 7–9
Temperature: 35–85°C (95–185°F)
Color: Green mats
Metabolism: anoxygenic photosynthesis—use organic compounds during photosynthesis.
Location: Mammoth Hot Springs, Upper, Midway, and Lower geyser basins

Aquifex Hydrogenobaculum

pH: 3–5.5
Temperature: 55–72°C (131–162°F)
Color: Yellow and white streamers
Metabolism: Uses hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide as energy sources; can use arsenic in place of hydrogen sulfide.
Location: Norris Geyser Basin, Amphitheater Springs

Aquifex- Thermocrinis

pH: 5–9
Temperature: 40–79°C (104–174°F)
Color: Bright red or orange streamers; contains carotenoid pigments that act as sunscreen.
Location: Lower Geyser Basin

The Story
I was walking around through the forest when I noticed what appeared to be blood on a stick. For about ~100 meters of land there was the same blood looking stuff on several sticks, rocks, a stump and across a log. My thinking was that either a raptor had a meal at these locations or a bob cat, or a mountain lion was dragging its kill. I also considered it was a wounded deer or bear. I even brought a sample stick home with me if I found someone to possible DNA test it. I saw this same thing in another location near here and once in another area of the basin about 6 miles away as if a wounded animal blood trail.
Fast forward 2 years and I came across this observation of porcupine urine.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2657215
Suddenly I thought, "Maybe what I saw was the same thing!"
So I then spent the next 2 days trying to locate the pictures I took. I finally located them on an IPAD I use for work, however the IPAD said the pictures were unavailable. After messing with it for hours trying to get the photos off of the IPAD, the IPAD randomly deleted all the images and synced with the ICloud account. I spent an hour on the phone with tech support and they couldn't help me retrieve them. Thankfully while fiddling around before they disappeared, I at least tried to send the photos to myself off the IPAD by using a "copy share link" and emailing all the links to myself. The photos never uploaded from the IPAD but I was left with these low-resolution cropped photo previews without dates or locations. I then had to print screen and paste them into new files.

These photos were taken in Tahoe Vista/Carnelian Bay August 2019 and the area has since undergone a massive forest fuels reduction treatment. The whole area is nothing but a few spread out standing trees and wood chips. It previously was a fairly normal forest habitat. You can even clearly see the full masticated area in the satellite image when you zoom in on this website down to "500m" scale shown at the bottom.
The 3rd to last picture you can see the drops of red staining along the stick going up and to the left in the picture.
The 2nd to last picture shows a stick with the red staining in a bush. I think I lifted the stick into the bush to take the picture and this is the stick I brought home with me and have since lost in my yard. I honestly can't remember if I found the stick in the bush like that or not but pretty sure I did.
The 4th to last picture shows it on a stick under a bush and rock in the lower right. This might be the same stick. I can't tell from these low quality and cropped images.
I have one other option to try to recover the images but it might take a couple days.
The last picture is a higher resolution image I was able to recover. You can see to spots on the bitterbrush and a stick on the ground.

It's a mystery!

The white flowers, not the domestic canines which we know are Lab/GoldenX. The flowers were amazingly profuse this particular year. We have frequented Sagehen Creek Trail over and over for many years and have not seen this density before or since.

These cabbage butterflies are puddling everywhere. We had one shadow our boat offshore. It repeatedly entered the high-speed slot between the sails to launch itself upward, then plummeted down, presumably to gain distance upwind. It sometimes also fussed about in the lee of the hull, perhaps to save energy, or brushed the surface of the sea, perhaps to escape the headwind. It only landed once: on a green reefing line, and only for an instance.