Yellowstone - Day 3

We had a nice slow start this morning. By the looks of SE's hair, she had a great night's sleep.  Not so sure about Daddy.  When we have double beds, we each sleep with one of the girls.  I don't know how they ever get rested.  Lily grinds her teeth and thrashes around.  Sarah Ellen snores and tosses and turns all night.  

I grabbed us some coffee/latte and pastries from the deli in the hotel.   

Our first stop of the day was Mud Volcano.  While these were not nearly as pretty as some of the other geysers and springs, they were still fascinating.  They were also stinky.

Churning Cauldron - this is literally a pool of churning, boiling mud.

This was called Sour Lake.  Looks like a nice swimming hole, right? Not so much, as it is full of sulfuric acid and will burn your skin.

Lily has embraced her big sister role on these walks.  

Mud Volcano

Dragon's Mouth

Next, we attended a ranger program on wildlife in Yellowstone.  

We toured around the visitor center exhibits for awhile.  Lily read all about Yellowstone being an active volcano and the amount of earthquakes they have each year.  She was completely fine!!!  Last year, she would not have been able to walk in this room.  Now she is soaking in the knowledge and enjoying it.  Praise Be To God!

We all needed some down time, so we spent some time at the Lake Lodge reading books and playing Ticket to Ride.  On the way we stopped by the LaHardy Rapids for a quick peek.

After we finished our game, we asked the girls if they wanted ice cream for dinner.  They stared at us for a minute to make sure we weren't joking.  No joke, we got our double scoop and headed off for our evening animal search.  We really wanted to see a grizzly.

James and Lily climbed to the top of a hill to get a better view of the bison.  They had to leave once the baby bison started coming their way.

Bull Elk

That is a buffalo crossing the river.  James took this picture from the sunroof of our car.

Way out in the field to the left of the three trees is a small brown lump.  This is the same spot that people claimed to see a grizzly the morning before.  We tried to see as best we could with our binoculars.  It was too small to be a bison.  We are going with a grizzly so we can check that off of the list.

Almost home and we get treated to a fox sighting.  Cute little guy!

Good night, Yellowstone.