Day 20 - Abundant Wildlife, My Foot!

People let me know pretty early on that there would be no hiking today. Gabriella, of course, informed me that all she wanted to do today was go hiking in the woods, but she was seriously outvoted. At least I was still able to convince everyone to get up and out early again in the morning so that we would have a better chance of seeing wildlife (unfortunately, said wildlife was not terribly cooperative, but whatcha you gonna do?) We did see some elk out having their morning breakfast by the West Entrance Road, but that was about it.

Once we got into the park, we pointed the truck north to Mammoth Hot Springs. The drive was quite spectacular.

Our first stop was at the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces, formed as hot acidic water dissolves limestone underground. Once it is exposed to the air, the remaining substance is deposited as travertine that forms the terraces. Some areas look a little like the surface of the moon. It is eerily beautiful.

Looking down on the town of Mammoth Hot Springs

We stopped in town to go into the Visitor Center to find some answers that Gavin needed for his Jr. Ranger book. This is what we found across the street.

We finally got to see some male elk!

There was, ahem, evidence that the critters spend quite a bit of time in town here. They completely ignore all of the people standing around gawking and taking pictures. There was a ranger hanging around outside to make sure that no one tried to get too close, though.

We made a quick stop at an overlook of Undine Falls. We only had time to take a couple of pictures before Linda couldn't stand us all being so close to the edge of the cliff and we had to go back to the truck :-)

Next was the Forces of the Northern Range self-guided nature trail. It was a boardwalk that had a lot of placards telling you about wildlife, plant life, geology, and history of the area. Gavin particularly liked it. Reading each sign gave the walk purpose, and Gavin likes to have a purpose for everything he does. We did actually learn a lot, especially about the 1988 fire that burned almost 40% of Yellowstone. It's amazing how much regrowth there has been since that time.

This area hasn't recovered as quickly as most of the park.

 I decided we should take another gravel road (this ride was much more tame then the one we took in the Tetons, though.) From everything I read, the Blacktail Plateau Drive had "abundant wildlife." Well, great! Abundant wildlife is just what we're looking for! And guess what we saw!? A whole lot of nuthin'! I saw one prairie dog and a whole bunch of bugs. Abundant wildlife my foot. I think all of the animals in the park are on vacation.

We had to stop at the Petrified Tree. It is an ancient redwood that was preserved under an avalanche of volcanic ash from an eruption millions of years ago. Sounds cool, right? The other ladies (and Gabriella) decided against making the climb up the trail, but the boys and I didn't want to miss it.

It was kind of anti-climactic. This was all that's left and you aren't allowed to touch it or even get close. Oh well, it was interesting, anyway.

For lunch, we went to the restaurant in the Roosevelt Lodge in the park. It was a pretty big place with decent food. It was a nice break from being in the car so much. After we ate, we drove through the Tower-Roosevelt area and along the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone." Unfortunately, they were doing construction and we were unable to pull off anywhere to take pictures. I've given up on trying to take photos out the window of the car because they just end up being blurry anyway.

The plan was to go to see the waterfalls in Canyon, but this happened...

Gabriella was done. This trip is wiping her out! So, we saved the falls for another day and headed back to West Yellowstone. Along the way we saw a herd of bison. At the bottom of the picture, you can see all of the fools trying to get as close as they can to get good pictures. It seems especially smart after a man was gored by a bison earlier in the week for making similar decisions. Our decision was to admire them from afar.

Don, Grandpa, and I took the kids for a swim in the campground's indoor pool in the evening. The water was freezing! What I wouldn't have given for this water a week or so ago when it was so blazing hot. Today, I did not appreciate it at all. Afterward, I threw the kids in for hot showers to thaw them out. We had late-night take-out from a barbecue place in town. The salads were really very good. The barbecue, not so much. Only one more day to explore Yellowstone!