Yellowstone - Day 2

Our plan for this morning was to hike Uncle Tom’s Trail from the rim of Yellowstone's Grand Canyon down to the lower falls.  This did happen, but not until after noon.  By the time we ate breakfast, drove twenty miles to the canyon with buffalo everywhere, and rented our bear spray, it was noon. 

The many buffalo we saw along the way.

 These fellas are totally oblivious to cars.

 Mule deer (we think)

We finally made it to the trailhead.  The hike down to the falls was a 500 foot descent that consisted of switchbacks and 300 steps.  I can’t say it was the most fun or worthwhile hike we have done.  It was a beautiful view of the falls but from a small, crowded platform.  I thought we would actually get down into the canyon but we were only about half way down.  Going back up wasn’t so fun.  Buggy actually led the way.  She is usually our pokey little puppy, but she was breezing up the steps as if they were nothing.

  Next we took a peek at the Upper Falls – no hike needed, thank goodness.

Lily wanted to hike the south Rim Trail up to Lily Pad Lake.  I thought maybe if it was nice, they could swim a bit in the lake.  I didn’t really take time to consider the name of the lake – it was covered in lily pads.  It was also in the middle of a meadow that looked like a great hangout for forest creatures – of all sizes.  It was a great hike though– half in the forest and half along the canyon rim.  The views were stunning.

 

It started to rain a bit on our way back to the parking lot.  I kept thinking they were huge drops until Lily realized it was actually hail.

Since the girls didn’t get to swim in the lake, we thought we would try to seek out the mineral springs we had heard about up near Mammoth Lake.  Mammoth Lake is in the far left corner of Yellowstone and was another beautiful drive.  We stopped briefly at the Upper Terraces which provided more mind boggling natural phenomena.  I really wish I had listened more when learning about geology.  

 All of these features are either steaming or have water running down them.

We eventually found our way to the soaking pools in Boiling River, which were actually in Montana!  These warm pools were formed by hot springs dumping directly into the cold mountain river.  Mother Nature is fabulous.  I got more reading time by a river while James and the girls soaked for a bit.

This is the hot spring that feeds the river.  This water was scalding.

We drove up two miles to the North exit of the park and had dinner in the cute town of Gardiner, Montana.  We had some fabulous pizza at ZBAR.  It was nice to get a little break from park food.

As we drove back into the park and passed the ranger station, SE asked, “what is the fire danger today?” At the entrance to each park, they always post the fire danger for that park.  This is a kid who has been to a whole lot of national parks this summer.

From there we drove down to Tower Junction, then to Canyon Junction.  This completed the figure eight of Yellowstone.  We have officially driven all the major roads of Yellowstone!

There were rain clouds and storms all around, which created an even more spectacular skyline mixed in with the beautiful terrain of Yellowstone.  At one point today we were driving through a lush meadow and with the next turn we were descending into a steep, rocky canyon.  Yellowstone has it all:  canyons, forests, meadows, cliffs, lakes, streams, rivers, mountains, valleys, rolling hills, hoodoos, waterfalls, geysers, hot springs, and so much more.  

 Rainbow

That was another full day.  We left our cabin at nine and pulled back in at ten!