Again, sorry about the delay in posting
time. Mountains and stuff.
We started day 2 about 8:30 a.m. after
some delicious muffins. From camp we headed north toward Mammoth Hot
Springs Terraces. We stopped at some springs along the way. Then we
ran into some intense road construction. It was sort of like driving
down a tore up gravel road. Good times. But thank goodness we weren't
pulling the trailer, which we had planned on doing the next day, and
quickly decided on an alternate route out of Yellowstone. Other than
those 7 miles, it was smooth sailing.
In Mammoth we ate lunch out of the back
of the truck and walked the board walk around the Terraces. I
remember them being so much more... everything. More colorful, more
water, and way more active. I was disappointed, but everybody else
was impressed. We saw a small herd of elk sunning in the lawn near
the ranger station. It looked like that was probably one of their
favorite haunts as there was a ranger stationed right there and large
signs were posted not to approach the animals.
Speaking of approaching the animals,
there are some real dumb-dumbs in the world. Buffalo are not like
dogs. They do not want you close to them. I thought this was a
universal knowledge. Nope. It appears that outside of the few border
states (where we have seen a buffalo before), this is a completely
foreign concept. Natural selection is how I ultimately feel about the
matter.
After Mammoth, we continued east toward
Tower Junction. Just south of Tower Junction is the Tower Falls. When
I was a teenager, I remember visiting this particular site and hiking
down to the bottom of the falls, where other people frolicked about
in the pools at the foot of the falls. I would like to note, that Dar
(my dad) did not allow any frolicking to be done by me or my brother.
This was devastating and I fully intended on righting this wrong by
frolicking with my boys.
Before we ventured down the trail
though, we got some hard-scooped ice cream in waffle cones. Mmmm. My
favorite!
We walked about a hundred yards and
were at the upper viewing point. Whatever. This was not the main
attraction. Then I turned around to head down to the bottom and was
met with a Trail Closed sign. Ahhh!!! I would not frolic in the
pools. It's a good thing I had ice cream, or things could have gone
south quick.
Back in the car we headed toward Canyon
Village. At one point we came to an abrupt stop in a long line of
cars. As we crept along wondering what was going on, a man in an
oncoming car was yelling “There are buffalo in the road!!!” as
they whizzed by. When we finally made it to the beginning of the
line, there they were. Three big old buffalo leisurely walking down
our lane of traffic. I have decided that the number of craps buffalo
give is ZERO.
Just outside of Canyon Village was
another one of my favorite places, Upper and Lower falls. It strikes
me odd that these were their names, considering that even the tiniest
of mud pots had more thoughtful names. No bother. I was excited to
hike the stairs of Uncle Tom's Trail! Finally something that was just
as I had remembered it! We sailed down many switchbacks and the 300+
stairs to the viewing platform. It did not disappoint. Pure awesome!
We snapped some pictures and headed up.
Lucas and Marcus were flying up the
flights of stairs. Sam and I tried to keep up, while Jason lagged
behind and tried not to die. At one point an Asian man turned around
above us and pretty clearly snapped a picture of Jason. Jason was
breathing heavy, covered in sweat, and had the wildest curly hair you
can possibly imagine. We're fairly certain Jason is now on the
internet with a caption chastising American obesity.
To round out the day we saw Mud Volcano
and stopped to grill hot dogs at a roadside picnic area in bear
country. I could barely eat because I was hyper-vigilant and ready to
spray a hot-dog crazed bear with my canister of bear spray. Obviously
there was no hot-dog crazed bear. But I enjoy torturing myself with
the worst case scenario.
Back at camp it started to rain. So we
hunkered down for some more Narnia. We had walked another 10 miles
including 116 floors (according to my fitbit). For the second night
in a row, we slept like dead horses.
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