Where Are We?

Some of you have called and wondered what we were doing. Well, we stayed at Yellowstone National Park for a week and had a great time. We camped at Mammoth and drove to all areas of the park. Here are some of the sights we saw.

We entered through the original gate at Gardiner, MT.

Yes, we made it halfway to the north pole!
We walked the trail around Mammoth Hot Springs and viewed all the terraces. This spring changed direction about 3 years ago and blocked the trail going to the top. The minerals in the springs seeped into the trees and hardened the root and sap system, but the trees are still standing.

We drove to Roosevelt to check out the lodge, but it was closed. We stopped at Undine Falls,...

Tower Fall....

and Wraith Falls.
We visited Norris where there are two geyser basins and walked both geyser trails. The blue of the geyser pools was amazing.
It was hard to believe that the color in the geyser run-off were living organisms--thermophiles--that thrive in the hot water.
On our way back to our campsite we saw this coyote well camouflaged by the tall grass.
The elk were out in large numbers in the Mammoth area. Every day we saw bull elks sitting in the grass near the visitor center. The harem was not far away.

We started hiking Rescue Trail, but the weather wasn't looking good, so we turned back. Bob found this antler along the way.

We also stopped at Boiling River which was not on any of the handouts we were given. We would have dressed appropriately if we had known! There were quite a few people soaking in the hot water where Boiling River joined Gardiner River.
We also drove to Old Faithful with the intent of eating lunch at the Inn, but it closed about 10 minutes before we arrived. We ended up eating lunch in the Bear Pit (lounge). They only served 3 types of sandwiches, but it was good.

We also toured Canyon and saw Artists Point, the grand canyon of Yellowstone. This was the fall we could see from Artists Point.
We hiked several trails that were over 5 miles. This is one of the beaver ponds on the Beaver Ponds Trail at Mammoth.
We saw a prong horn antelope while hiking Beaver Ponds.
We also had a great view of Mammoth from the trail.

We hiked to Fairy Falls and beyond to Imperial Geyser.

Fairy Falls was interesting because not all of the water came from the top, a lot of it seeped through the rock and came out at different levels.

To get a geocache, we had to take our picture at Fairy Falls.

Imperial Geyser erupts constantly. Every now and then it settles for about 10 seconds then really shoots up.On our way to Imperial Geyser and back to Fairy Falls, we were able to get up close and personal with a buffalo who wanted to walk the trail!On our return to Mammoth, we stopped at Artists Paint Pots.
We enjoyed watching and hearing the mud plop!
We had a great time at Yellowstone and this was just a brief summary of everything we did. After we left Yellowstone through the northeast entrance, we headed toward eastern Wyoming.