Wednesday Is Just Mammoth!

Tuesday we visited the Mammoth Hot Springs area in Yellowstone. You gotta love any place that has mammoth restrooms. We spent the afternoon in the area leaving the RV about 1 pm and returning a little after 9 pm. We wanted the later afternoon sun. We ate at the Terrace Grill (a fancy name for a fast food joint) and then went to the upper loop drive.

This is our favorite formation on the upper loop. It is so cool the way the hot water runs over the whole thing. The minerals in the water are left behind and the cone just gets bigger and bigger. Ron likes it because it's orange.

Everywhere we go there are so many pretty wild flowers. Generally the blooms are small and scattered through the landscape. The colors are mainly yellow, purple, and white. We did see one pink one today.

This is a view of the main terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs. Both Ron and Joyce noted that there is a lot less water year by year and with the reduced water flow, the colorful bacteria are disappearing. Mammoth just isn't as pretty as it used to be (but clever photography can help it!).

We had a number of wildlife sighting as we drove through the park today. The sun was getting quite low when we spotted this deer grazing with two others.

This bison was quite a shock. Joyce had spotted the one in the rear and pulled over to watch it. When the car stopped, she looked out the window directly at this big fella! There were also a lot of smaller wildlife sighting, primarily mosquitoes. Good grief for mosquitoes! Neither Joyce nor Ron remember experiencing them at Yellowstone in prior years -- but that's probably because we haven't been here this time of year. We are each using different insect repellents and we'll see which one works better. And thank goodness for Sparky, Joyce's electric fly swatter!

We stopped for this lovely waterfall on the way home. The same extra water that's growing the mosquitoes is producing wonderful run-off for the waterfalls. You can count on seeing more of them.