Yellowstone - Day 5

Rise and shine sleepy ones (that would be me and Gloria) we have another great day planned.  Caleb got up early and went to the Le Grand Rapids to do some fly fishing. He said it would take more time and gear to get anything and with the family we really didn't have that, so no fish this trip.

We liked our site because we got to drive through Hayden Valley and see wildlife in the morning, this time a pullout was jammed with people and scopes.

So we naturally pulled over and asked what they could see: mother grizzly with two cubs!

The little brown spots are them. No problem staying the needed distance away here.

Back in the car, we passed some bison on the road and headed down a new stretch of road that included beautiful valleys to Mammoth Hot Springs area.

We headed up the board walk and saw the top of the famous Palette spring.

This one was only seven years old.

About the same age as Gloria!

(as dictated by Lydia) This is screaming mouth rock, try to spot the nose, eyes and screaming mouth.

These are the same steps that Moran, Hayden and their group saw in 1871. Beautiful layers coming from the minerals of the hot springs runoff.

Lots of people wanted to take pictures here.

At the VC we got to see Moran's actual sketch book and journal!

As well as our only sighting of a wolf, too bad she was stuffed.

A lovely and historical Visitor Center.

A petrified piece of wood was outside as well as a few elk.

Saddle & Paddle Express time! We drove outside the park to Gardiner, Montana (new state for all but me). The girls liked the little touristy town. We got directions to the horse ranch from Flying Pig Adventure office and headed up a mountain on a gravel road.

We were the first family to arrive and the ranch was lovely. Gloria got to pet a nice dog named Saylor.

Then they brought out our horses! In the park children have to be 8 to ride, so I had found this place outside the park and was excited to do their Saddle and Paddle Express.

Lydia on Soda Pop, Gloria on Redman, Elizabeth on Hickory Dickory Dock and Caleb on Jake.

We're ready to go but we had to wait for three other families to saddle up as well.

Caleb, who hasn't done a ton of riding himself, had a horse that decided to go for a walk. He stopped it and had a nice view to take a picture of us.

And we were off, into a little forest, where we crossed a creek, and up a hill in a wide valley.

There was a guide who had a young boy on a lead rope, then our natural and practiced Lydia. I was in the middle between two boys so I got some peace and quiet. Caleb was in the back between moms and they all chatted. Gloria changed spots in line a few times because her horse liked to stop and eat and her legs weren't long enough to pursued him to move along so the back guide would have to come and put it back in line.  It was frustrating at first but then she got more confident and able to somewhat control him.

After about an hour of great views and riding along we got back to the stable and it began to rain.

The second we got off it poured!  Same thing happened after our boat ride, we just thought it was amazing timing but later Mom told me she had been watching the weather and praying that God would put an umbrella over us so we could enjoy our time.  Wow, was that prayer ever answered!!

We drove down the mountain in pouring rain and got back to the Flying Pig shop, where the rain stopped and we got into swim suits.

The same three families as well as others, headed down the steep stepped hill to our boats.

The ride was the perfect mix of exhilarating splashes and rapids and peaceful floating among amazing scenery and chatting with the others.

Lydia 'rode the bull' for a while.

Alex, our guide, was a college student and she was helpful and fun.

The river had other boats on it as well, another company had water canons so we got as wet from them as we did the rapids. It was fun to try and splash. One boat was caught in the biggest rapid so we rammed them. I was riding the bull and got thrown back and held under for a moment, the photos, which we didn't buy, showed me smiling the whole time and it was fun.

We loaded up our boat and got on the school bus to go back to their shop.

Our shoes were in the car so Caleb snapped this pic of the rednecks walking barefooted down the street in Gardiner. We stopped at the close by grocery store and bought more fruit for picnics.

There was construction so we didn't get to drive through or pose by the Roosevelt Arch but this is it.  Alex had highly recommended the Boiling river and we were already in our swim suits, so we thought about stopping, it had also been recommended on Tripadvisor to fit it in here, but the skies opened and it was pouring, we all got cold and quoted, "you can't see everything so don't even try." Lydia cried, "I don't want to see everything I just want to see THIS thing." but we drove on to the VC at Mammoth again and got changed into warm clothes. Gloria played with the puppets in the store and we watched a video about She Wolf, the leader of the pack.

Back in the car, we headed to the Upper Terrace drive, no one was in the mood to turn and smile so we took a shadow picture instead.

This new little baby spring had popped up last month in the road. I had heard about the road closure but they deemed it safe enough to put up a barrier and reopen the road we drove around.

Back to the camp we got to go on a new stretch and enjoyed the views.

That rain that had opened up on us had produced hail in the park. As we were driving, I said WHITE stuff so the Texans stopped and saw it wasn't snow but hail.  We had to sit for construction but still enjoyed our drive back to our campsite. Another full but wonderful day.