Yellowstone or Bust: Day 5

(Wednesday, August 26)
Wow, today was an incredible day.  .  .  and also incredibly long.  The kids want to see a bear (or a wolf, or a bighorn sheep) like nothing else, so we decided to make an early go of it.  We were up by 6, and out the door not long after 6:30!  We likened it to a "Magic Morning" at Disneyland!

The other reason we were up so stinking early is that one of the major roads is closed in Yellowstone, which really makes driving around inconvenient!  See, we are staying where that red dot it.  And that thick black line, is the road that's closed.  (The one that says "Closed!"  See?)

So to get anywhere on the North Loop we have to drive a LONG time.  It may not be long in miles, but with the speed limit at 45mph, and all the bison/elk/eagle/marmot stops, it really takes a long time.  We figured we'd better just get it all done it one day.  So.

Our day started with a bald eagle sighting.  It's a juvenille, (under 5 years old), and that is why it doesn't have the white head feathers.  It was pretty exciting though, we were literally under the tree it was in!

We saw elk again, and so many buffalo- on every hill, it seemed.  Some just stood in the road as we slowly passed by, and we could see the morning dew steaming off of them, and their breath in the cold air.

After driving forever (see map!), we arrived at the Canyon area.  We took a short walk to see the lower falls and the actual canyon.  The colors are so unique there, and the waterfall is gorgeous.

So, I obviously don't know how to take a picture of people in the shade and still get the waterfall in the background.  Any help, picture people?  Flash, maybe?

We got back in the car and drove just a little bit to a trailhead.  The hike was more of a descent than hike, down into the canyon to get a very good look at the water fall.  There were like 380+ stairs, and it was intense!  The high elevation (around 9000 feet here, I think) definitely contributed to my shaky legs afterward.  It was such a cool view though, and the kids and I were pretty proud of ourselves.  Joel stayed around the halfway point with Carter.

Down.

Back Up!

We loaded up again, and headed to Mammoth Hot Springs.  As you can tell, it's not really that far away from West Yellowstone, but it took us hours and hours to get there because of the closed road.  We ate lunch in the parking lot (we'd packed food), and then headed to check it out.  All the pics we've previously seen of this place is like this:

(pic from Wikipedia)

so we were quite surprised to find it looking like this:

I overheard several conversations that included phrases like, "It's really changed!"  Or, "It sure didn't look like this last time . . . " I looked online and it said that the amount of water leaving the hill side is still about the same, but some springs are inactive right now and other ones (newer, maybe?) are flowing more.  It was still beautiful and amazing.  (Running out of adjectives here!)  I was in constant awe of how many completely different geological features Yellowstone has.

After we left Mammoth, we drove around (A LOT) to find our next destination.  Boiling River.  This was a highlight for me.  We'd found out about it before we left home, and it was on the top of our 'to do' list.  It was tricky to find, but definitely worth the extra driving!  The Boiling River is the runoff from Mammoth Hot Springs.  It goes underground through the hills, and comes out 20 or so yards before it dumps into the icy Gardner River.  It's illegal to swim in any body of water fed by hot springs in Yellowstone, so you can't get into the Boiling River, but where it dumps into the Gardner River, there is a designated 'swimming hole.'  And how.  I didn't have my camera with me while we were swimming (for obvious reasons), but I went back after to take a few pictures.  My feet were killing me though (wet shoes with no socks), so I didn't walk all the way down there.  I've searched the internet for a great picture of it, but none do it justice.  Between the sound of the rushing water that the Boiling River made as it cascaded down the limestone, to the Garder river swirling past us, to the muted laughs and squeals of children splashing around.  And then the extremes of the water- from almost too hot (but not quite!) bath water to freezing ice water and every degree in between, always changing.  Words can't do it justice.  We found perfect sitting rocks and just as soon as I thought I was getting cold, I'd be immersed in warm water and be feeling perfect.  It was bliss.  The current was strong, so Carter was in our arms the whole time, and Garrett was within an arm's reach.  We took turns floating/swimming down the long pool with a very happy Maddy.  If it wasn't FOUR HOURS AWAY THANKYOUVERYMUCHROADCONSTRUCTION, I'd be there at sunrise tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that too. 

Gardner River- at the beginning of the hike to Boiling River

It was like something at a high dollar man made resort- this hot water cascading down.  You can't really see it, but at the far left of this picture the part of Boiling River that looks like an actual stream pours in as well.

So crowded here, but we somehow hit it between groups of people.  It was busy when we first arrived, but most of the time there were just a few people there.

We finally dragged our very wrinkly selves out of the water and treked back to the car.  At this point we were almost to the North Entrance and the thought of driving around 150 miles at <45 mph did not sound even a little appealing.  We knew it would be at least a 3 hour drive either way, so we opted to go north to Bozeman, have dinner, and then drive back south to West Yellowstone.  It turned out to be a good choice- it did take about 3 hours, but we had a fun dinner together and it was great to get a small taste of Big Sky Country.  We arrived back at the condo about 10pm; 15ish hours after we'd left, and many experiences richer.  Best day yet.