Wapiti

We drove back into Yellowstone this morning, following quite a bit of the same route we'd travelled yesterday on our way to the lodge for dinner. This time though we made quite a few stops (much to Craig's disgust) to check out things we'd bypassed.
Some gorgeous hot springs where the water is literally boiling out of the ground, volcanic mud pools where the stench is terrible and the mud continuously bubbles and pops up out of the ground along with some beautiful waterfalls along the way. Managed to get up quite close to two bison with their very young calves at one of the stops (no, not dangerously close).
Again, we were amazed by the number of bison out on some of the plains around the rivers. We had no idea they were in such big numbers here. Craig and I both commented that it must have been amazing to be some of the first settlers riding over and through those mountains and coming across the herds of them back in the day as what we saw we know was nothing in comparison to the numbers that used to exist. Lots more deer and a few elk along our way today as well.
We left Yellowstone via the East Entrance and it was interesting to see the amount of

snow still on this side of the mountain. The boys even got to touch snow when we made a brief stop just before the exit of the park.
Wapiti is tiny! Barely a town and there are deer just randomly feeding in paddocks all the way along the road. Boys shattered that there's no pool to swim in (they just played in snow - a pool? really???) but having fun in the little playground at the place we're staying.
I am still ridiculously crippled from the horse ride - Craig still finds it hilarious.
Dinner was at a quaint little restaurant (one of the only places to eat here apparently).
Struggling to convince the boys that they need to sleep - the sun sets so late here!