Yellowstone

All pictures expand when clicked on.

We started the next day's touring with a visit to the Artist's Paintpots Area of the park.

 

The basin area you walk through is full of steaming hot springs. 
Up the hill are the paint pots, so named for there gloppy boiling mud and the various colors of the pots. 

This pot and spring has some red hues.

The main activity for the day was a 6 miles hike up and down Mt. Washburn which tops out at 10,243 feet.

We went up via the Dunraven Pass trailhead and descended to the Chittenden Road trailhead.

You can see the ultimate destination which is the far peak with the observation post on top.

Once you get up the moutain you can look down on the trail where the previous picture was taken and see how much elevation we gained while still only about half the way up.

 

 Near the top the observtion post is clearly visible.

 Jonah is still looking pretty fresh after our climb onto the ridge connecting the two peaks.  But we still have a few hundred feet to climb.

 

 Finally the top and lunch.

 There are 360 degree views from the observation post.

 

 On the way down along the Chittenden Road you pass through a burned over forest. 

 

A view from the Chittenden Road looking back toward the observation Post on Mt. Washburn.

After meeting Peggi at the trailhead we drove to the Lamar Valley to see the herds of buffalo.

Some of the buffalo were up close and personal.
The buffalo seemed to be scattered out in bunches of 50 to 100 animals.
This herd seemed content to let people get close for pictures - but definitely not to close.

 

 Peggi at the wheel of the Mustang driving through the Lamar Valley.

We eventually gave up counting but saw several hundred during the drive.

 

 

 

Our last day of touring was a drive north to the Mammoth Hot Springs and then out the North Entrance to Bozeman.

A slow but steady flow of water out of the hot springs results in layers of travetine being deposited one of top of the other until you have a hill of travertine rock.

 

 

 
Peggi and Jonah posing under the Roosevelt Gate at the north entrance to Yellowstone.

We drove to Bozeman and checked into the motel to be ready to fly home the next day.

We had time to visit the Museum of the Rockies before it closed.

 

 

I suspect most people flying in and out of Bozeman miss this museum but it is definitely not to be missed. 

The highlight, of course, is the world's largest collection of dinosaur bones.

The next morning we caught early morning flights back to Virginia.

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