Chapter 3

We woke up this morning to rain, along with a little thunder and lightning. The rain didn't last too long, and it did wash away much of the smoke. We could see blue sky, clouds and even far away mountains. We began our morning in Gardiner, and then spent the rest of the day in Yellowstone.

The first place we visited was Artists' Paint Pots, with several small geysers and springs. We also saw Monument Geysers, Fountain Paint Pots and the Grand Prismatic Spring. By the end of the morning, we had seen all four geothermal features: geysers, hot springs, boiling mud and fumaroles (steam).

We (along with thousands of other people) watched Old Faithful erupt.

We went on to West Thumb, part of Lake Yellowstone. Even though we visited so many different places, each one had something new, that we hadn't seen before.

The last part of Yellowstone we visited was Hayden Valley, which is known to have lots of wildlife, particularly buffalo. Nora wasn't happy with the small, skinny buffalo we saw last night -- she wanted a big one, blocking traffic walking down the road. We first saw one napping under some trees. A ranger told us: don't bother with him, there are hundreds just up the road. Just up the road, we did see just what Nora wanted -- a big one walking along the road. Further along, we stopped at the Mud Volcano and Dragon's Mouth, and saw another in that area. We kept driving, and sure enough, saw big herds across the river. It was hard to get a picture because they were kind of far away, but we saw lots.

We turned around and headed for the east entrance (or exit). High up along a mountain road, we saw lots of people out of their cars, looking up on a hill, with rangers directing traffic. We all saw a grizzly bear with one cub feeding up the hill. Just after we left the park, another group was gathered and we saw a group of 5 big horn sheep up on a hill. And yet again, a little way down the road, there was another bear with 2 cubs (luckily across the river). Amazing wildlife sightings! We also saw 2 eagles, a white pelican, trumpeter swans and a magpie.

After we left the park, we drove through amazing mountains and rock formations to Cody, Wyoming where we stopped for dinner.

Somewhere along the way, e passed a town with a population of 10 !We drove one more hour to Greybull, Wyoming, where we are staying in the old Greybull Hotel, in a huge room.