Yellowstone National Park--Part 4

(In my time zone, it's still Thursday!)

Sunday morning we woke up, packed up and headed north to Mammoth Hot Springs. The drive was simply gorgeous.

This is an entire side of a mountain that just steams and bubbles and possibly explodes. We didn't stop. It came up on us too fast. Roaring Mountain, I think?



A heard of elk--babies too if you look closely.



You go up and over a pass to get to Mammoth Hot Springs from Madison.



Simply beautiful.




When we got there it was pouring rain. I love our fifth-wheel. We parked, went back and had lunch, cleaned up, and it magically stopped raining. It was still a litte chilly, so we put our coats on. Like the elk in the background?



And up we went. Part of the hot spring is dormant. Apparently it does a lot of changing. It's really rather spectacular.

Grace took this picture:



And this one:



And she took this one, too. My little budding photographer.



We headed up the trail further. I think there were a million steps. And the sun peeked out. And we kept going up, closer and closer to the sun. And we made it to the top and around the corner and found this:



Pretty, isn't it. And to forever remember the hike, we roped a passing fellow tourist to take our picture.


I look red in the face because I just hiked up a billion stairs in a fleece sweater with a baby tied on my back. Brent looks like he's carrying our coats because he is. Violet looks asleep because she is. But we were still having fun. Because fun is what we do.

And for the record, this is where we started:



Yes, it was the farthest parking spot from the top. The last parking spot before the highway turns and goes down the mountain into Montana.

Yes, it was a long way up the hill, but gosh it's pretty at the top.



We lingered. And took some pictures.



And the two older kids decided they didn't want to walk back down.



Thank goodness for carriers. Makes life so much simpler. And a stroller NEVER would have made it up all those steps.



I think this is my favorite picture from the whole trip.



This is my second favorite.



That kids cracks me up.

And off we headed towards home.