Vacay Day 5 ~ Yellowstone (cont)

The next day we got up and drove to North Yellowstone to see Mammoth Hot Springs. On the way we stopped to look at the canyons and rushing river. It was beautiful!

Mammoth Hot Springs was a little boring, but still really amazing that nature can do such a thing! We hiked the boardwalks to the top and back down.

Then we stopped in a grassy area and had a picnic. The kids played hide-n-seek. We just enjoyed some downtime!

On the way back we were planning to stop at Uncle Tom's Trail and walk the 350+ steps down to see the huge falls (and come back up!) Brynne was really looking foward to this! When we got there, however, the trail was closed because of storm damage. So, we ventured off the left and got to see one of the smaller falls. It was really cool!

We hiked around a bit and then drove over to the North Rim to stand right at the top of the fall. That was cool! And, the rainbow over the water was amazing!

After some quick photos, we headed back to camp again.

We got back early, and still had plenty of daylight. Eli was a little tired from all of the activity, and Rick wanted a break, so I took Kyndal, Dawson and Brynne back up past Old Faithful to go see the Black Sand Basin and Firehole Lake.

We stopped off at Old Faithful to get some pizza and souvenirs. When we were leaving we got to see a mama Bison and her baby on the side of the road.

On that note, it is super cool to be at your campsite and see some mule deer eating grass just 3 feet away, or to see a black bear walk into the woods, or a brown bear up on a hill, or a wild bison living in the field in your campsite. You just don't see that in Oklahoma!

The Black Sand Basin had some cool sites.

But Firehole Lake was really cool! It was STINKY! The bubbling sulphur is quite a sight to see! The kids took some funny pictures there.

After a long day of sight seeing, we went back to bed (for our coldest night yet) and planned to get up bright and early the next morning to head to the Grand Tetons.