Yellowstone Day 2 (August 1st)

Well, we started off this Sabbath day by attending the ward in West Yellowstone. There were like 600 people at the meeting! It was crazy crowded and very hot! Needless to say, Tori was beyond restless and when the meeting went long she was so beyond done. Well, we went home and had lunch, then off we went, back into Yellowstone! I was really excited today because the last time that all of us Dingers went to Yellowstone we were not able to go to the upper loop because it was closed, but today we did and boy was it marvelous!
I mean just look at the pictures, they do not lie! Our first stop was Artist Paintpots. We were extremely lucky and the first time we went through the one way road in the construction area we went right through! Both kids fell asleep so when we got there we were able to roam around freely and get some couple pictures (thanks to Dennis!).
These paintpots are marvelous. It is amazing how the ground can boil like that. The pictures really don't do them justice and the next time I go I will get video of them. The pools and such are just beautiful. I really love that green color (which is caused by some kind of bacteria that lives in really hot places) and I really love the other colors too... it makes the pictures amazing. I could do without the nasty smell (sulfur aka. rotten egg smell) really isn't my favorite. But the vista and the colors...(I mean look at the photographs, my two favorites are the ones with all of the colors in the top left and bottom right) it is worth the occasional whiff of rotten egg. The two paint pots are the milky looking pits. The milky stuff boils and spits everywhere and makes more crust around the pit.
Ahhh...the view from the car!
SPECTACULAR! Wow! Mammoth Hot Springs. It is a beautiful place. We explored as much as we could with Tori in tow. She wanted to walk, so when that happens, we try not to stay out too long. We took a nice stroll through the upper terrace of the springs. Aren't Heavenly Father's creations marvelous?! Everywhere I looked there was a beautiful picture to be taken. I went crazy! But still, once again, the pictures do not do the real colors justice. Everything is so bold and you just can't get the shadows right of the folds and creases in the rocks. As you can tell, it was a beautiful day!
Tori loved strolling along the boardwalk and boy was she getting some stares. I heard, "Oh, isn't she a doll", or "She sure is a cutie", I don't know how many times! She is a looker and she hammed it up too! She was so curious about everything and loved looking through the fence.
Down in Mammoth we got Ice Cream and let Brookie stretch again. Upon pulling into the parking lot we got to see 2 "teen" elk eating grass off the lawn (see pictures below). You may notice that they put wire cages around the flower beds so that they don't get devoured. I guess elk graze on this grass all day. Dennis and Gwen told us that when they stayed here in Mammoth that they would wake up and there would be elk all over the lawn! Anyeay, the ice cream was great.
Sunday was our luck wildlife day. We saw a young grizzly bear just off the side of the road foraging for food. We weren't quite sure if he was old enough to be without his mama or if she was lurking somewhere nearby. But it was really cool to see a grizzly bear. Then just down the road we saw a black bear looking for food off in the distance. We didn't get pictures of him because he would have been just a spot, but no worries right down the road we got to see one of his relatives not 10 feet from the road foraging! It was amazing! It was cool to see the bears in their natural habitat. We also saw a mama dear and her fawn (that still has it's spots!) and a meadow jumping mouse on our way back from our walk at the falls (below). Tori was able to see all of the animals pictured and really liked the bears, but wondered why this zoo didn't have giraffe and elephants! (ha ha ha) Still not a Bison to be seen!
Tower Falls was amazing! Although we did not venture to the basse, the girls loved to be out in the air and see the beautiful sights. We got some cute shots of our family, thanks again to Dennis.
Just our luck on our way back to West Yellowstone for the night, we saw a lot of people with cameras out at a picnic site. So we made Dennis turn around (because I wasn't about to miss a Moose) and to our surprise there were two adult male Elk just across the Gibbon River. Wow, were they majestic. Tori was going wild and kept saying "Elk, elk, elk!" On our way back to the car we hugged a few trees! The key to get Tori to look at the camera, have her look at the stranger behind the camera! Ha ha ha! Can you spot the elk in the background?!
We caught this beauty on the way home!And this beautiful sunset summed up our second day in the park. Seriously awe inspiring! I LOVE Yellowstone! It is definitely the most beautiful place that I have ever been to in my life! Still 2 more days! I will post again tomorrow!
If you missed Day 1 click here!