Yellowstone Day 2

We had yet another packed day ahead of us circling around the lower loop of Yellowstone. We first headed over to check out Old Faithful. As we headed down the road we could see Old Faithful going off in the distance. We had just missed it, but luckily this geyser is predictable and goes off every 90 minutes. We killed some time walking around the Upper Geiser Basin and checking out some more geysers, springs, and pools. We also killed some time and got some delicious ice cream for everyone while we sat and waited for Old Faithful to go off.

Killing time at Upper Geiser Basin

It's crazy to see how far down into the crust of the earth these pools go

Here we are with Old Faithful spouting up behind us

Hanging around with my girl

Next, we headed off to a picnic spot along the river for lunch. The kids enjoyed being able to run around and throw rocks into the river. What a great stop this was. Following this we headed off to the Fountain Paint Pot Trail. This one mile trail was filled with mudpots and colorful hot springs and was one of my favorite stops on the trip.

Allie was being hilarious. She would not put here feet in the shallow river, she kept them parallel to the ground everytime Blake would try to lower her in

Crossing the river with daddy; safely on his back

No justice is done with this picture; this pool was bubbling with mud

Next, we took off to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. What a unique landscape to have in Yellowstone, not expected at all. We checked out two great waterfalls. The Upper Falls were visible from right off the road where we parked. Then, we hiked a one mile trail to Artist Point where we had a beautiful view of the Lower Falls and the gorgeous yellow canyon, hence the name of the park....Yellowstone.

On our way to the Grand Canyon we witnessed this herd of buffalo who were blocking the oncoming traffic. The cars were backed up for about 5 miles because there was no where for the buffalo to go. On one side there was steep rock and the other side of the road there was a river. I'm just glad we were on the right side because we got to keep driving and got a great view of the herd

A shot of the lower falls...the picture doesn't do justice to the beatiful scenery

A view from Artist's Point; the end of our one mile hike

Our final stop for the evening was at Mud Volcano which was my favorite stop. There was the reminisense of a volcano that had erupted millions of years ago, which now is just a small bubbly muddy volcano. There was also a cool cave where water surges out and it's called the Dragon's Mouth. To top off this great stop, we had buffalo all along the trail, just laying in the grass and walking around.

Blake and Allie with some buffalo along the side of the trail

Allie and the Mud Volcano

Another fun patch of purple wildflowers that we spotted on the way home. I don't know why I just love these fields of flowers