Yellowstone National Park,
Wyoming,
United States
Thursday, September 4, 2008
We slept in a little this morning and then spent quite awhile updating the travel blog. We finally had internet since we stayed in West Yellowstone. We drove to Mammoth Hot Springs which was 30 miles. Along the road from West Yellowstone to the Madison Jct. we once again saw some impressive elk. The bull elk had antlers spanning about 2 feet. He was across the river and slowly walked to our side and met up with the cow elk and calves. It was fun watching this transpire. The temperature was turning colder and it was spitting rain and/or snow. I was very glad Will thought to bring his winter coat which I wore a lot today. We walked the broad walk at Mammoth Hot Springs to see the terraces. I was here several years ago and there has been such a change in the terraces since then. Many of the beautiful terraces have gone dormant over the years so the colors are a white or grey. The few that were still active where still the beautiful orange and yellow. It is amazing how things can change within the span of a few years. The park ranger said that the landscape of Yellowstone can sometimes change daily. The terraces are still an impressive sight. We drove on the road to Tower Jct. to see the petrified tree. You are probably thinking how boring...but think about this the petrified tree is a redwood and redwood trees do not grow in Yellowstone now. This indicates that before the great Yellowstone eruption around 169,000 years ago that the climate must have been a lot like California. We took a short hike to Lost Lake from the Petrified Tree parking area. It was getting near dusk and we were hoping to see some Moose at the lake but it just did not happen for us. But the 1 mile hike was very pretty and flat. There were some bear sightings this summer on this trail. We kept our eyes open as we did not want to surprise a bear. We headed on to Gardiner Montana for dinner then back to the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. This is Will's last day with us and we will take him back to the airport in Bozeman, Montana in the morning.
