Yellowstone National Park

After leaving Oxbow Bend, we headed straight to Yellowstone National Park. We were surprised to see how much snow was on the ground since it is May 27th! It was a little brisk outside today too! 

We stopped at Lewis Falls to get some pictures and then we headed to the Grant Village Restaurant to have some lunch. The last time we were in Yellowstone we wanted to eat here but it closed right before we arrived. This year, we were almost the first people to arrive for lunch and so we were seated right next to the windows and the scenic views. We had a nice lunch and warmed up a little after being outside for awhile.

Next stop was Old Faithful. We've seen it go off before, but you just can't visit Yellowstone with seeing it. We actually saw it twice today. The first time we visited the Visitor Center and we were just in time to see the show. We headed outside and took some seats in the second row. There was quite a crowd waiting to watch Old Faithful spew. It did not disappoint!

 
Then we headed over to the Mud Pots and all the geo-thermal geysers and assorted hot pools of water. Some of them are so beautiful. They look tempting enough to jump in but that sure wouldn't be wise! There was a lot of bison scat around the mudpots. They must like to lay down and warm up in the area when it is cold. The mud pots were really boiling today. I guess they do a lot more boiling in the spring and then they die down in the summer. We took a great movie of a bubbling mudpot.

When we finished walking around the geo-thermal area, we headed back to the Visitor Center because we had to hit the restrooms. When we arrived Old Faithful was going off again so we watched it through the windows of the Visitor Center and I think we actually had a better view from there than we did outside!

It was time to head for home already so we got in the truck and headed on back. On the way home, we stopped at Leeks Marina in Grand Teton National Park. There is a little restaurant there that has good pizza. You can sit out on their deck and eat, but it was too nippy for us so we ate inside.