Saturday in the Park

Do you think the stagecoaches have been upgraded since 1978?

Originally we had reservations for a stagecoach tour out of Roosevelt Lodge today, but when we checked in on Wednesday, we found out that the activity had been cancelled due to poor trail conditions from all of the recent rain and melting snow. Bummer!

But it all worked out just fine in the end since we still had a lot to see, and this was our last full day in Yellowstone.  

Driving up towards Tower/Roosevelt, as we went over Dunraven Pass, there was (what else?)... SNOW!

Sliding downhill in the snow



Tower Falls were roaring with all of the water running over the edge...

Our friends thought it looked like chocolate milk

The road through Lamar Valley going towards the northeast entrance was closed to traffic about 8 miles in due to ongoing repair work (the road had been washed out). We drove as far as we could in search of more wildlife...

Why did the bison cross the road?

Pronghorn antelope

This is the point where we had to turn back

After eating another lunch in the car (all of the tables at the Lava Creek picnic area were taken), we went on to Mammoth Hot Springs.

Palette Spring

We walked through the lower terrace area first, and then headed back down towards the hotel, mainly because ice cream bribery gets anyone through an uphill hike.  

From there we drove a short ways to the north entrance to see the Roosevelt Arch, and to be able to say that we've been to Montana, if only for an hour.  

"I would like to have seen Montana..."

From Gardiner, MT we came back thru Mammoth and drove the Upper Terrace loop. It was quite disappointing to see that most of the springs were dry. Because no thermophiles were presently living in them, they just looked like old cement.

Minerva Terrace

Guess this next pic pretty much sums up our last day in Yellowstone...

Tired boys, but somehow they revived
for a snowball fight with Dad later that evening!