Gael Glen Farm On The Road: Day 30: Yellowstone National Park, WY

It was a sleep-in morning. We woke up at 6:30 am, saw it was -4 degrees Celsius and rolled back over to sleep until 8 am. It was still chilly when we finally departed the campground, heading around the Great Loop to get to the Northwest part of the park. Our aim was to visit Mammoth Hot Springs. On the way, we stopped to check out some of the white capped mountains and the Calcite Springs Overlook. This overlook was unexpectedly gorgeous; truly a “I can’t believe that I am seeing this in real life” moment. We also saw some more animals including Seamus’ wolf (though no one saw it but him), Ian’s bear (really a bison upon a second look) and Alistair’s “circle with four legs” (we have no idea what he saw!). This animal confusion was in line with my “moose” sighting yesterday, which turns out was really an elk. I think we need to practice our animals.

Isn’t this gorgeous? The white rock near the river is steaming if you look closely.

Elk growing his antlers.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Mammoth Hot Springs. We really weren’t impressed with it the last time we visited here. However, after our visit today, I think this might be because we might have missed the most beautiful part, which is located on a side path connected to one of the parking lots but not the main loop trail. This “new” (to us) part was beautiful. The water was actively flowing over the existing formations and the colours were vibrant shades of rust contrasting with bright whites. The “old” part on the main loop remains underwhelming - dry, bleached, and crumbling. But the new part more than made up for it. We also saw two bull snakes. The first we had advanced warning for, while the second caught me completely by surprise slithering alongside the boardwalk about 6 inches from my shoes and disappearing into a tiny crack in the rocks. I jumped a least a foot. It was LONG and sneaky. The boys kindly assured me that while it would still bite me, it wasn’t poisonous. Super. That’s just great. Yuck.

See snake #1? Ugh.

Here is sneaky snake #2. Double ugh.

Bird sipping mineral water from the hot springs.

After our visit to the hot springs, we stopped for lunch at Sheepeater Cliff, which the boys immediately dubbed the “mini devils tower” due to its similar granite columns. Alistair climbed a bit but fell on his bum and decided that was his cue to quit. It was a lovely backdrop for our lunch of leftover chicken soup and homemade bread.

Can you spot Ali climbing? Look closely - he’s there!

Our afternoon was spent at a quick stop at Roaring Mountain (which frankly looked like the gateway to Hell) and then exploring the south rim of Yellowstone Grand Canyon, including a hike to Artist Point where we saw a park ranger painting the Lower Falls. I think I might be developing a fear of heights as I age. Or at least, a fear that the kids will horse-play themselves off a cliff. We had a strict no goofing around rule on this hike as we were a foot from the crumbling cliff edge at times. Happy to report that we all survived.