Yellowstone July 2010 - Day 3 Part 2 - Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

After the mud volcano we headed up to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. First we stopped at the Brink of Upper Falls which was a very minor hike to the top of the falls.








Then we headed around the bend to Uncle Tom's Trail and Artist's Point where there was about a mile long trail that took us along the canyon. Here are all of the great views:








This is what most of the trail looked like. We walked through the woods and then you would come out at a great spot to see the canyon.
Andreas fell asleep a few times in the carrier throughout the trip. This was one of the times when his head was falling way out. We tried to support it, but nothing really worked. So he just kind of bobbed along while Saul walked.



Mom walking over to Artist's Point:



I think they could make this one into a postcard:


Here is an elk that was right near the exit of the trail. As you can see, Dad and Saul got very close and he was huge. But there were a lot of other tourists looking too, so I guess they figured they could at least outrun a few of them.

Yellowstone July 2010 - Day 3 Part 1 - Mud Volcano

We stayed at Fishing Bridge with our trailer, which was a great place to stay since it was in a very central location in the park and had a lot of the hook ups we needed for the trailer. They even said next year they will have electricity hookups, which would have been nice.
When we first got up that morning and were driving just a little ways down the road, we saw our first bison. They were off in the distance, but we were excited. Little did we know that by the end of the trip we would have seen so many that unless there was one about to run you over, we didn't bother taking a picture.


Here we are on the boardwalk at the mud volcano.
And here was our first up close animal encounter -- you could practically reach out and pet him.


I told my Dad I would label this picture "The Hairy Beasts". I don't think he appreciated it.



The Mud Volcano:
One of the coolest things we saw that day was the Dragon's Mouth Spring. It really did look like a dragon's cave with the steam billowing out.





The Mud Caldron:


Then as we continued down the road, we passed by a meadow area that had a whole herd of bison. We had to stop to take a look.

It was such a beautiful day, and the temperature was just about perfect. In fact the only rain we saw was during the night on our first day. Beyond that, everything was perfect.

Yellowstone July 2010 - Day 2 - Cody Wyoming

We got to Cody around 9pm on Saturday night (day 1) so we weren't able to see much. After we dropped off the trailer at the campground, we headed straight to Irma's Hotel for dinner. The bar there is really amazing and restored very nicely along with a very ornate cash register. Irma was the daughter of Bill Cody and the hotel was purchased by him for her.
The next day we headed over to the Buffalo Bill Cody museums. There are actually around 5 that are all linked together. I think the firearms exhibit was Saul and Dad's favorite. Mom and I looked at the western art exhibit instead. And then of course we all looked at the Bill Cody section.

Outside next to the "Friendly Cowboy" statue. Too friendly? You be the judge.
On the wagon out front.
In the tepees



In the museum

After the museum we headed over to Yellowstone. On the way it rained a bit and we saw a rainbow which you can kind of see in this picture:Here was the view out of our windows on the way up there:
We even saw a moose right next to the road on the way, but we weren't able to stop since we still had the trailer attached. It was the only one we saw the whole time, but it was pretty up close.