Yellowstone Lake, a lake over half the size of the Lake of Constance, and Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The loop is about 100 miles long.
First we had to pack up and check out of our hotel as we are spending our last night at the historic Old Faithful Inn, right across from the Snow Lodge. Thankfully, the bell man offered to take all our luggage over and have it put into our new room.
The following map shows our tour with the key stops.
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Our first stop (B) was the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, which is one of the grand old hotels in the park. Looked to us it could use a face lift. We didn't stay for long and continued our drive.
Next stop were the Mud Volcanos (C). This is a group of hot springs that are also referred to as Mudpots. The first thing that greeted us as we pulled into the parking lot was a foul smell, as shown in the first pic. That didn't deter us and we walked around the path that led past the various mudpots. Here's a pic of one called "Dragon's Mouth Spring."
At the end of our walk we ran into a group of Buffalo that were right beside the path, only a few feet away from us. A took this close-up shot - no zoom!! As discussed in tomorrow's blog - probably not the smartest thing to do.
We continued on our way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We drove to the South Rim and headed to Artist Point (Point D in the map above), a spot from which many pictures of the Grand Canyon and the Lower Falls have been made. We made our own.
A&I tried to take the path down to the bottom of the Lower Falls but found that it had been closed due to a rock avalanche in the spring. Instead, we hiked to a spot that gave us a nice view of the Canyon to the North.
When we got back up to the parking lot, A was still working on finishing the Yellowstone book she had gotten for Christopher from the library.
We continued on the loop and headed back towards our hotel via the north end of the loop. On the way, K spotted a cloud in rainbow colors in the sky. A immediately recognized it as a "fire rainbow." I had never seen anything like it. The picture here doesn't do full justice to it. When I got back to the computer I found that its scientific name is a Circumhorizontal Arc, a rare optical phenomenon.
Back to Old Faithful Inn, K & I went on a tour of the hotel that gave some of the background on this historic building. Our room is situated in the original building that was built in 1903/4. It does not have a bathroom, but just a wash sink.
As the kids were pretty hungry (we skipped lunch) we had an early dinner in the old Dining Room. Afterwards, we sat on the Terrace overlooking Old Faithful and wrote out some postcards. Once the mosquitos got too bad we moved inside were a piano player was playing light music and a fire was roaring in the old fireplace. It was a nice way to end our time in Yellowstone.
Tomorrow, we are all looking forward to our 11 hr drive to Bismarck, ND!!
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