Today we woke up in West Yellowstone at Three Bear Lodge in Montana, and got breakfast at McDonalds, which had pretty high prices....felt a little gorged there. We went right back into the park, and there was some road work, and lots of cars going in. It was fun to see all the Harley Davidson Motorcycles.
We saw a neat waterfall, and a few more waterfalls throughout the day. We went to a place called Sheepeater Canyon, which has amazing stones and geological structures going on. We went to Mammoth Hot Springs, which was pretty cool. It was where we had lunch, and seemed like a neat older area, that paid attention to detail in their buildings. We had good food there for lunch.
We took a scenic drive on our way to Tower Junction, and saw a neat black bear there, foraging among the hillside. It was so neat, and we were so excited. We could hear him breathe and eating a few times, and probably got a little too close, but were safe.
Then we stopped at Tower Falls, which was beautiful! So many different falls were just breath taking. Canyon Falls was another place we went ,and we saw elk there too. The animals are just amazing. I saw a very cute ground squirrel as well, and we made friends with a neat huge black raven. Artist Point in particular, was especially stunning, we couldn't hardly believe the colors in the canyon, but the Canyon Falls were powerful and amazing.
On our way to Yellowstone Lake, we saw a lot of Elk and Buffalo. They are beautiful and amazing creatures, and we knew we were so lucky to see them up close like we did. The sulfur smells along the way were at times almost overwhelming, and you can hear the bubbling, and see the boiling water very often from the geysers... They are all over the place. One other thing I noticed all day was the dead or dying trees, often piled up like matchsticks very oddly. This was something I did not anticipate seeing, but was almost overwhelmed by the number of dead trees. If I had a question to ask a ranger, it would be about that, as I don't think they were all from fire.
Other little perks were seeing moths and butterflies, bees, and the many wildflowers everywhere. The clouds were breathtaking. I could go on and on about each point.
On our way out of the park we finally hit the amazing Yellowstone Lake, which had wonderful waves lapping the shore. It was very big! The sun was setting, and we saw a Mother Bear with her Baby bear cub, and it was so awesome. We drove around the lake and it was just lovely.
I have to say that I am a huge fan of Yellowstone National Park. I have heard about it all my life. This is written when I am totally exhausted, to be completely honest! I cannot begin to cover all the wonderful places we visited today and the other days on our trip. If I had the time, I would go back and do just that, and I hope to.
Tomorrow, we go to South Dakota, and will be heading for Mount Rushmore, and the Black Hills. Our trip is flying by and if I don't write at least a little bit about it each day, I am worried I won't remember even the big points of the day.
