The big bison are pretty imposing, but the babies are so cute. At some places there were baby bison everywhere. This one was just to the side of us and looked so nice and peaceful.
We then headed over to the area of Old Faithful and parked near the Old Faithful hotel which I would stay at the next time I come to Yellowstone. The location as well as the look of the hotel is great. There was a very cool car parked outside that deserved a picture!
And of course there's Old Faithful that is impressive to see no matter how many times you saw it before. You can see what it looks like "normally" with just a little bit of steam coming out, and then you can see it at it's best. Oh, if you're wondering how we know when Old Faithful is going to do it's show, you just walk inside the hotel and look on the board that shows the approximate time for the next show!
There was a nice 2.8 mile hike to Morning Glory that we all wanted to take. So, we set out on the way and for the entire hike you get to see tiny geysers, some of which just steam, some of which bubble, and some of which just smell!
When you finally get to Morning Glory, it is worth the hike. It's a beautiful pond looking thing that has super hot water (boiling) and incredible colors. There is no real way to describe it, and hopefully the pictures can paint a good picture.
Even Ellen looks more beautiful standing next to it :-)
We then decided to drive the entire loop around the inside of the park. Once we went further south, the scenery changed pretty dramatically. There is a huge lake that wraps around the south east corner of the drive. We stopped off at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel to have a view and a quick lunch.
The drive up and back to the West Entrance was quite long, but pretty. There were deer in many places along the drive, and we stopped a couple of times to take pictures and look at the scenery that was passing by.
After a hard day of hiking and driving, there's nothing better than some Mooseberry's ice cream for a snack. The ice cream place only has two flavors (chocolate and vanilla) and tons of toppings that they then blend into your ice cream. The result is your own flavor of tasty ice cream.
After a snack we needed a rest and found a nice bear bench to sit down on. The downtown area at the West Entrance is really a nice little mountain town. We walked in and out of the small shops looking at the souvenirs that they sell.
We wrapped up this day with a dinner in the downtown area, a few games of rummy (which Ethan won one of) and a movie. Tomorrow is a very long driving day as we have to make it all the way to Sheridan, Wyoming. Mount Rushmore is really far away, and we're eager to see a lot of the attractions surrounding it.Hotel: Bar-N-Ranch - We were expecting much more from this hotel than what it delivered. First, the pro's - great breakfast, great ambiance, great staff. Con's - Room was smaller than expected. Bathroom is not as modern as expected (small leak in sink, no water pressure in shower, changing water temperatures in shower, plus very small and low shower). Restaurant is for high-end diners, yet there are a lot of kids who stay there. Almost no TV stations (I think we got one), though they had a large selection of DVD's. Distance from park is as advertised (6 miles to west entrance), but most of the sites that first-time tourists want to see in Yellowstone are about 40 minutes inside the entrance. We would have opted to stay at the Old Faithful Inn and would do so next time.
