Mammoth Hot Springs

There is water in Mammoth right now.  I hear that sometimes there isn't. I've had a few people tell me about it.  The colors of the rocks come from bacteria and other organisms that live in the different temperatures of water.  They vary in color according to the temperature.  Fascinating.

 Apparently this is how travertine forms.  I suddenly feel guilty that my bathrooms and laundry room have travertine tile - but boy is it gorgeous all polished and flat on my walls and floors.

Cool dead tree and its shadow.

My favorite spot - every time we visit Yellowstone. So colorful and the storm clouds just added to it.

And this is Emerald Pool.  Very pretty and perfectly named.

Animals in the park

Where are your favorite places to vacation?  

What about with children?

Where are their favorite places to vacation?

This time we printed off the Junior Ranger packets for Yellowstone at home so they could fill them out on the drive.   We ended up having to pick up the packets for the Grand Teton park at the visitor center in Moose Junction.

This is a bull moose. Can you tell?  I know, wrong side of the road and sun flare too.  

Moose Junction, Grand Teton National Park

Of course this one is in an enclosure.  It's a grizzly bear who is foraging for food.  We took the kids to West Yellowstone on our way out of the National Park.  They also have two different wolf enclosures. They now have an eagle/hawk/owl enclosure where they care for injured birds.

This is a bison walking up the road in Yellowstone National Park.  He was just plodding along but when we saw him later that day on our way down from Norris toward Old Faithful he was still on the road and had traveled miles.  He had a mission and all the cars on the road were going to just have to slow down and let him by.

This is the second elk we saw and a nice big bull elk too. Tyler made a noise like an elk call and he lifted his head long enough for a photo.

And this was just south of Mammoth Hot Springs.  Lots of elk there. A few small bulls and one spike. These were mostly cows with the bulls off in the trees.

We also saw a beautiful Fox, ravens, hawks, ground squirrels, and two coyotes.