Sabbatical Day 11/Slowing Down

My sister was sick last night so we had a slow morning. We started our day in Yellowstone by driving to Yellowstone Grand Canyon Waterfall. We had to walk a ways to reach the waterfall but we could hear the rushing water as we got closer. We hiked to the top of a mountain and looked down. Beneath our feet water rushed and swirled and the current was swift. A rainbow of colors shone on the water when the sun came out.

Afterwards we went to see mud pots, which are kind of like hot springs but it is mud bubbling instead of water. The smell was atrocious; it was most definitely the worst thing I have ever smelt in my entire life. My favorite one was called Dragons Mouth. Steam flowed out of a cave and swirled around a pool of steamy mud; the whole thing roared as if it were alive.

As we were driving along we saw many cars stopped by the side of the road; so of course we stopped to see what all the commotion was about. It turns out there was a bear, less than 100 feet away from us. It was just eating grass and not giving us the time of day. That makes nine bears that we have seen. We are hoping to see one more.

To pass the time until dinner we went to a welcome center that talked about the volcano that is Yellowstone and better explained the geysers, hot springs, and mud pots. Exempting the evolution side of how the volcano was created, I learned a lot about how Yellowstone was formed.

We went on a short hike in bear country after dinner before driving to Lamar River Valley. Lamar Valley is where the Lamar Wolf Pack lives. We didn’t see any wolves; however we did learn where their den was located.