Day 16 - Yellowstone National Park

Today was a jam packed day, we left our camp site at 8:00am and returned at 9:30pm only to make dinner and go to bed. It was a cooler day today, went down to six degrees last night and was only ten degrees by lunch. By the end of the day it had warmed up to around twenty. So again my touque came in handy in July! Animals we saw today: elk (lots and lots of elk), Buffalo (also pretty abundant), bull deer, bears ( yay!), a marmot, mouse and chipmunks. I got some great pictures of the Buffalo and elk, sort of a picture of the bear (if you look closely you can see Mamma's head in the grass but no Cubs - I wasn't getting out of the car for that one!) and the others I missed but ... Still thrilled to see them! We saw so many amazing places today I can't even remember them all or the order we saw them in so my top three were: Ol'Faithful Geyser, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the Mammoth Hot Springs. Ol'Faithful wasn't so faithful today, she was late and only spewed water up about 25 feet. However, I was still impressed and loved the boardwalk around the site. The visitors centre had really neat displays and a fun area for the kids. The geysers, hot springs, etc are my favourite part of Yellowstone. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was impressive and terrifying at the same time. We walked down to one of the viewing platforms by going down a narrow path, perched on the edge of a cliff, with switchback turns because it was so steep. I'll admit to a few panic attacks and moments when my heart may have stopped. It was especially panic inducing watching the kids going down the trail looking over the edge without a worry in the world. Luckily, I had J by my side helping me along and holding my hand on the way back up. The end result was spectacular. My very favourite part of the day was Mammoth Hot Springs. The colours were unbelievable and the scenery was breathtaking. As we wandered along we had some elk cross our path. We stopped and watched them for a bit and one of them even walked across the top of one of the hot springs. I wish I was at the bottom to see him peering over the edge. It was a long busy day but we made the most of our time in the park. I need to come back for a week or two to really enjoy everything that Yellowstone has to offer. Next time I'd stay at our KOA Campground or stay at Mammoth Hotsprings. Tomorrow off to the Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Night!

Ol'Faithful

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone 

Mammoth Hot Springs

Elk on top of the hot spring