Day # 7 and 8 Wildlife and Waterfalls

We got up and got dressed and ready to leave Mammoth Hot Springs.  One of the kids' favorite animals that we saw this trip were the ground squirrels.  They were so fascinated by them.  Our cabin had them everywhere!  Under the cabins were some holes, and others were just out in the yard.  While we were waiting for Eley to pack the car, we were watching them scurry around.  I happened to get a picture of a Magpie (another new creature for us to see) fight with one.  I think it wanted to steal food.  After it ran the ground squirrel off, it stuck it's head in the squirrel's hole under one of the cabins.  Then the ground squirrel started to roll in the dirt!  It was so cute.

Our first order of business was to drive to Gardiner, Montana.  We had two reasons for doing so; so I could finally say I have been to Montana, and to get a picture at the original stone arch entrance to Yellowstone.  As we left Mammoth, there were elk all over the grounds.  They had all the babies together and some of the does were roaming around.

These were all the babies

It was only a five mile drive to Gardiner, and I am glad we went.  It was neat to see the original arch.

Notice the lovely matching sweatshirts

After we went back through the park, we headed down to Tower Falls.  Along the way, we had another small buffalo road block.

This little one didn't get to finish it's bite before the momma grunted at it to hurry across the road!  A few miles down the road, we came across another road block.  This road block was our favorite by far!  A black bear and her two cubs.  We drove right past them then stopped and turned around to watch and take pictures.  I promise we were never in danger.  The park ranger was there the whole time with his bear spray directing folks and watching out for us.  This was the day after the bear killing, so they were on high alert.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures.  They were just so cute!  They played around in the grass for awhile and then crossed the road.  Most people left then, but we stayed.  Then the cubs went to a cedar tree and climbed up in it and played until the sow grunted at them and they came down.

Up the tree

The kids loved seeing them playing around.  When we saw the grizzly and her cubs, they were so far away we really couldn't make sense of what we were seeing.  But these were close enough to really be able to see and enjoy.  The rest of the day was the waterfall part.  We saw some really pretty waterfalls and some gorgeous terrain.

This is Tower Falls

Upper Falls

This was the sign put up in the area of the bear attack.  We drove right by the parking lot where they would have parked.  It was closed with a ranger guarding it.

Lower Falls

Wyatt took this and did pretty good!

The grand canyon of Yellowstone.  The falls were on the other side of this.  After we left here we worked our way down Hayden Valley.  There are usually all kinds of wildlife here, but we saw mostly buffalo.  It was the middle of the afternoon and some of the animals hadn't started moving yet.  After Hayden Valley, we stopped at something called Mud Volcano.  It basically was a bubbling mud pit.  But there was a really neat hot spring there call the Dragon's Mouth.  It was a hole in the side of a rock formation with hot steam coming out and it would come out and make the water have waves like the ocean.  Pretty cool..

We cruised on through Yellowstone an Grand Teton until we got to Jenny Lake.  You will probably remember the picture from last year of Eley and I standing in front of it.  We stopped there and I made everyone put on their sweatshirts again (they were so happy...not) and we got someone to take our picture.  

We left the overlook and went to the boat dock to get on the shuttle boat across the lake.  There was a waterfall called Hidden Falls we wanted to hike to.  It sure was hidden and so worth the hike up the mountain!

On the shuttle boat

Hidden Falls

Photo by Grace

A very present reminder...always!

Well, so sorry this was such a long blog.  We went from the top of Yellowstone back through to Jackson and we saw a lot of stuff!  As I type now we are in Colorado headed to Hays. Kansas to spend the night.  We will be back home tomorrow after a 10 hour drive.  It sure was a great vacation with lots of good memories!