Our Yellowstone trip part 5

Our last full day in Yellowstone we headed out to do the upper loop. We got a later start that day because we were planning on being out late. We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Our first stop was Norris geyser basin.

We did a 2 mile loop and saw about half a dozen geysers.

Next we stopped for lunch at Sheepeater Cliff. (That's what the frontiersmen used to call the Shoshone Indians.) I thought it would just be a picnic spot, but it was a cool site in and of itself with a river nearby to boot.

 Basalt lava that formed columnar joints nearly 500,000 years ago.

Next stop was Mammoth Hot Springs, which also has a boardwalk around them. Dan read after our visit that some of those formations grow by two feet each year.

 Durst dudes.

 This is how Eli looked after approximately 30 minutes in the bjorn. Every time he was in it.

We didn't walk by the one that looked the coolest. Next time.

There's a nice little area with a visitor's center and hotel right near the hot springs. The visitor's center there used to have an exhibit with art by my favorite artist, Thomas Moran. We thought it was still there and were really excited to see it, but apparently they replaced it about a year ago with another exhibit. Thomas Moran joined an expedition team in 1871 as an artist and his sketches and paintings helped Yellowstone get its national park status (the first national park). Here are some samples of his Yellowstone artwork for your viewing pleasure.

There was a six-mile long side road off the upper loop called Blacktail Plateau Drive or something like that. We didn't realize it was a dirt road until we were on it. We looked and looked for animals but didn't see anything until Matt, in the car in front of us, pulled off and pointed out a bear on a hillside way far away. Soon enough we had a bunch of cars pulled off behind us, everyone craning to see the bear.

 

It's smack dab in the middle of the above picture. Here's another that shows how far away we were.

We had finally seen our bear. And it was too far away to spray or shoot.

A pretty view on the drive.

Dan had really wanted to see Lamar Valley, a huge valley kind of in the northeast part of the park where a lot of bison come in the evening. Dan was also hoping to see wolves come down from the mountain to attack the bison, but we never saw any wolves. We did see some pronghorns, though.

We drove the road for a while, and by the time we turned around to head back, the bison were crossing the road away from the valley and closer to us.

Selfie with bison.

We stopped at Canyon Village for a quick dinner and got home late. The next morning we packed up and said goodbye.

We drove back to Boise and spent Friday night at Kirk and Gretchen's house again. Yummy pizza and homemade ice cream. Speed scrabble. 

Saturday morning, the 4th of July, we went to a festival at a park where they had a chalk art contest with some pretty amazing stuff. This one was our favorite. Pretty incredible!

It was so great to go on a vacation and see family we don't see often enough!