More Yellowstone views/visit with family

Here are pictures of the elk and her newborn baby that we saw at Mammoth after work about two hours after it was born. We actually saw the afterbirth come out of the mama, and it was pretty gross. But it was interesting to see how mama cleaned up her baby and tended to it.

During our hike to Artist Paintpots, between Mammoth and Old Faithful, we saw some very colorful sights. Water was flowing all around in a haphazard way.

Also there were some steamy hot springs...

And a few places where water was shooting out from the ground.

 

We climbed up a hillside and saw this view.

 

 

When we came back down we took a picture facing the hill.

 

 

It never ceases to amaze me how these hot spring areas pop up here and there around the park. 

 

During the week of June 9 we were delighted to have our daughter Donna, her husband Jon, and their two kids Jessica (16) and Chris (14) come for a visit. On our days off we traveled together to show them some of our favorite places in the park. Of course we had to take the picture at the Yellowstone sign.

 

 

We passed our first bull elk sighting of the season.

 

 

We stopped to check out Gibbon Falls.

 

 

Tuff Cliff was our next stop. It's a high rock bluff made from volcanic ash known as tuff. The sign noted that it is the result of an eruption 640,000 years ago. It's beyond me how they figure these things out!

 

 

 Since Jessica saw the mouse pad of the Grand Prismatic that we bought last year she wanted to see it in person. So we drove to the Midway Geyser Basin and walked around the boardwalk where it is located. It was so windy that all we got was steam in our faces from the 250 by 350 hot spring. But we did see some very colorful formations of bacteria.

 

This is a view from the ground.

 

So we took a hike from a different area to spot it from the non windy direction. It included a hike part way up a hillside to get the view of looking down on it. The picture just doesn't show its true beauty.

 

 

Here we are walking back down the hill. We made it!

 

 

The next stop was Old Faithful, our old stomping grounds from last year. We waited until its scheduled eruption, and it was very prompt.

 

 

We didn't have enough time to walk around the boardwalk at the Upper Geyser Basin so we headed back to Gardiner.

 

Since seeing animals was one of their goals, the next day we visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center at West Yellowstone right outside the west entrance to the park. They had seen everything but wolves in the wild. We got to see many bears and learned why they were there.

 

 

When the wolves weren't sleeping we saw then tromp around and heard several of them howl.

 

 

When we came back to Gardiner we took a picture of them at the arch at the northwest entrance.

 

 

They got to tour other parts of the park when we worked. Their last day was spent going on a stagecoach ride in the morning and attending the Rodeo in Gardiner in the evening. Their visit went by too quickly, but we enjoyed the time we spent with them.