YELLOWSTONE ~ DAY FOUR

Tuesday was our last day in Yellowstone Park so we made the most of it! We arrived in the Park around 8:30 AM and didn't get back to West Yellowstone till around 9:30 that night! It was a long day but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We started by driving up to Yellowstone Lake. We saw  bubbling mud holes ........

And beautiful blue water ......

With bubbling caldrons of hot water right along the shoreline! It was amazing!!

The likes of which I have never seen!!

A very nice couple from Germany took our picture after we volunteered to take theirs. It is something to see and hear ALL the nationalities of people in the National Parks!

After leaving the Lake area we drove further North and came to an extremely SMELLY area!! Bubbling mud hole and stinky lakes! 

And I mean HOT BUBBLING MUD!!!!

This body of water was called SOUR LAKE!  I had to laugh at some of the people walking around covering their noses with a handkerchief. One guy said he thought he was having a reaction to the smell!  lol

Here I am at a place called "MOUTH OF THE DRAGON" .... A big cave looking geyser with bubbling water and steam belching out!

After leaving that area we drove into some beautiful meadows and found a herd of Bison. 2 babies and some adults! Pretty darn cool!!

I wanted to see the falls in the worst way but I did not want to hike any further than I had to as my legs and feet were swollen and my right knee was giving me fits!! Luckily the Upper Falls were a short walk from the truck and a beautiful sight to behold!!
Getting to the Lower Falls was another story! We had to take the Uncle Toms Trail and it was a hike and a half!!  On the way down I said to Tony "I sure hope we don't see a Grizzly and a younger couple in front of us overheard me.  He turns around and says "You just have to be able to run faster than your husband!!"   lol 

It was SO WORTH IT  to get to the bottom and behold THIS!! It drops 302 feet and is magnificent.

I was proud of myself for making it down BUT now I had to get myself back up the mountain!! A lot harder than I thought! I had to stop at every visible spot to sit and catch my breath! At one point I told Tony "If we see a bear, run and save yourself! I can't "  lol  He said he would probably do something heroic and we'd probably both be done in!  lol  Luckily, there was enough people on the trail and enough noise being made ..... we didn't see on!!

This is the sign I should have paid more heed to  before descending!  lol  Not really .... I'm glad I went and got to see God's wonderful handiwork!!

After making it to the top again, we drove to a part called "Artist Point"  WOW!! I can see why it was so appropriately named! The sight was INCREDIBLE!~   Absolutely breathtaking!
 

We drove further North again and saw a sign that said "Petrified Tree"   We stopped and started hiking again ...... It was a paved road but it still was going UP!!  On the way up we saw a Moose across the draw. We were able to take some pictures of him (Next picture) but this is the tree. There had been 3 of them to begin with but again,  STUPID PEOPLE picked at them for souvenirs  till there was only one left and it had to be enclosed in a fenced area to protect it!

And here is Bullwinkle....  Still eating as we came down from the tree.

We drove to Mammoth Hot Springs  before turning to head back to West Yellowstone. It was beautiful! The hot springs and the minerals in the water here formed travertine. It looked like snow and was gorgeous!

It was a pretty good hike up the mountain to these formations too and I was hurting!

But they were incredible to see and I'm glad I made the effort!

The hot water coming off the mountain was beautiful! After seeing this, we discovered that there was a road that you could drive to where we were so  rather than have me walk all the way back down to the truck, my dear sweet husband said he would go down and get it and drive up to get me!  BLESS HIS HEART!! I took him up on it and he was down and back up in no time!

On the way out of Mammoth we saw a deer. 1st one in the Park that we saw!  We headed back to West Yellowstone and Tony pulled off the road at another sight of geysers. I walked a little ways and then handed him the camera and said "GO FOR IT!"  I was beat and didn't want to go another step!

He came back with a picture of a cute bunny!

And a picture of Emerald Spring! We then started the drive back. It was a wonderful vacation and we enjoyed seeing the Park together. It is beautiful and we would love to go again sometime. I am just so grateful to live in the Beautiful United States of America and be able to see all the wonderful places this country has to offer. God is so good to us!!