What We Did at Yellowstone- Day 2

Day 1 of our Yellowstone trip was mostly searching for wildlife.  Day 2 was more on the geologic side.  Of course we wanted to see Old Faithful.  You can't go to Yellowstone and not see Old Faithful.

We saw plenty of other geysers and hot springs as well.  Again there was so much to see.  Some areas were too crowded so we saw some things as we drove by, but we went on a few scenic drives and were rewarded by what we saw.

We did stop at Mammoth Hot Springs to walk around a few of the hot springs as our first stop in the morning.  So cool... or hot.

We saw swallows nesting in the mineral deposits.  We saw a killdeer walking around the lower areas of water.  I'm guessing it was probably cooled off enough by then.

It was so neat.

We stopped by the National Park Ranger Museum.

The couple there who were explaining things to us were so friendly and informative.  They even gave the kids stickers.

And this is what happens when your brother-in-law hands you his camera and says to take pictures with it:

At the end of the day on our way out there was major traffic backed up because there were bison all over the road and on the sides of the road.  Luckily we were stuck next to some bubbling mud pots which we were able to watch while waiting for the bison.

Driving in Yellowstone is also so scenic.  I mentioned before that there are so many different types of places around.  We did drive around flat areas with meandering rivers.

We drove through canyons with rapids and waterfalls.

We drove by rivers and ponds and lakes.

We stopped at one place called Fishing Bridge which is clearly marked "Closed to Fishing."

While there we watched a beaver swim by with a big branch in its mouth.  They do exist.  This one was smaller than those we saw in the Pacific Northwest last year.  I blogged about those on July 10, 2016.

Looking back at some of our pictures, there were also river otters swimming around.  They were farther away so the pictures aren't that great, but we could definitely tell there were otters.
We were driving through mountains as it was getting darker and we did see a black bear.  Unfortunately it was too dark for the pictures to turn out but it was definitely a black bear.  That was fun.

It was a good second day at Yellowstone.