Felt the rush of the Rio Grandee, then saw Yellowstone first hand....

We left Gardner early Friday morning to spend our second day at Yellowstone. We drove into Mammoth Falls and hiked up to the hot springs falls. It was so strange to see all this boiling (literally) water cascading down the rocks and sitting in pools along the roadway.


Below is the picture of "Old Faithful" the geyser that erupts every 90 minutes. We arrived at the site at 12:30 pm and were told she would be erupting again at 12:42. We had front row seats and I had my camera ready. After taking 4 pictures, I looked at my cell phone and it was 12:43 pm....pretty accurate!

I think my favorite part of the entire drive thorough not only the park but a large part of Montana is the crystal clear brooks that run along the winding roads. The quivering Aspens throw a reflection into the waters that look like sparkling diamonds flowing through them. I told Salt it feels like we are spending personal time with God!



There were parts of the park that were not so pretty. There have been acres and acres destroyed by forest fires. Some are standing as just a charred mess while some like the ones below have started to regrow. You can see all the old charred trees standing in the picture below, as well as the new growth. This is supposedly from the major fires of 1989 so has taken 18 years to get it to this stage.



Oh I almost forgot to put this little bit of trivia in for Mike. There is a ski slope up where we traveled that is open only between May and July....as that is the only time they can get to it!

We left the park, (via this cool tunnel) spent a quiet evening at the KOA and mapped our way to Glacier National Park where we will head tomorrow.