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Mammoth Hot Springs Upper Terrace
Click to enlarge This huge tower of rock was created a by a hot spring carrying dissolved minerals to the surface.  It is called Liberty Cap, because it reminded someone of the hats worn during the French Revolution.

This feature has been inactive for two thousand years.

Click to enlarge This is called the Upper Terrace located in the Mammoth Hot Springs region.

The edge of the white is a cliff.

Click to enlarge Gorgeous scenery and very hot.

The white bubbling stuff are mud pots.  It is odd to hear the surface of the Earth gurgle. 

Click to enlarge Karen had me take this picture because it reminds me of winter in New England:  lots of gray and white with dead trees.
Click to enlarge The red and orange stripes are mineral deposits.

 

The white scum on the surface looked like bad skim milk.

Click to enlarge Hum, what happened to the path?

The sign says, Under Construction.  Ha!  The park is under construction, not the path!

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Mt. Washburn
Click to enlarge Located on the road between Canyon and Roosevelt regions, this view shows a white blotch in the woods, which is Washburn Springs.  

The park service closed the trails to this hot springs area because it is unstable.  A geologist fell thru the crust and got burned badly.

Click to enlarge Same view.
Click to enlarge Still along the same route from Canyon to Roosevelt, we took a road up to Washburn mountain, which is over 10,400 feet.

See if you can find our Jeep.  It is the only red vehicle.

Click to enlarge Karen and I hiked up part of the trail leading to the top of the mountain.  We didn't make much of a dent since it is a 5 hour hike, steep, and very windy.

The views were just absolutely breathtaking.

Click to enlarge At the top of Mount Washburn is a fire lookout shack.  Someone lives up there.  Their job is to keep an out for fires.  There are 3 such lookouts through the park.Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge We've left the mountain here.  I just liked this view and took the picture from the car.  See my arm?

 

 

Tower Falls
Click to enlarge Located about 5 minutes south of Roosevelt Lodge, this was a pretty water fall.  The water fall towered down a mountain wall.
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Click to enlarge Karen likes the dead tree.  Go figure.
Click to enlarge There is a trail down to the river that leads to a view of the water fall.  Unfortunately, the trail was closed :-(  
Click to enlarge Here's the river I would have been going down to.

 

 

Pleasant Valley
Click to enlarge On Wednesday July 2nd we had dinner out with the cowboys.  We got onto a horse-drawn wagon and went out to Pleasant Valley. 
Click to enlarge Bob from Texas was our entertainment for the evening.  Great guitar and vocals.

He also gave us the "orientation" before we got into the wagons.  He listed all the ways we could get hurt or killed during dinner.  Yikes!  He warned the kids to not run even one step for the rest of the night for fear of spooking a horse, and then told us a funny story.

Click to enlarge These Belgium Draft Horses weigh about 1800 pounds and can pull twice their weight.  The wagon holds about 25 people.  Trust me, after dinner, these horses had to do overtime.

We were amazed at the way the horses just stood there and let the kids poke and pet and yak at them.  They have sort of Golden Retriever personalities.

Click to enlarge Some folks opted to ride a horse to the cookout.
Click to enlarge The food:  Rib-eye steak, water melon, AWESOME beans, salad, corn on the cob, sweet apple cobbler, and cowboy coffee.  WAY YUM!!  The steak was excellent!

A teenager next to us ate three steaks!

Click to enlarge Here's where we ate.  Who is the person in the middle?  Can you guess?
Click to enlarge Pretty valley.

When we arrived, a coyote trotted down the side of the hill to check us out.

Click to enlarge The reason the park service lets these guys do this cookout trip here is that this area was already disturbed by humans.  There is a road here thru the valley and at one time a hotel.

Have we said anything about bathrooms yet?  There are a lot of those vault type bathrooms everywhere, a little house with a toilet over a hole in the ground.  These were never stinky!  The park service does a great job.  Believe me, I visited almost all of them.

 

Virginia Cascade
Located on the road between Norris and Canyon village, this is a cascade and not a water fall.  Notice it steps down or cascades.  A water fall has more of a vertical drop.
Stream leading to the cascade.

This woman was camping alone and came along on the tour.

 

 

Other:
Sandbar between Yellowstone Lake and inlet.  On the left is Karen.  On the right is this chick who we caught stealing sand from the sand bar.  

National Park Service regulations specify that visitors LEAVE nothing and TAKE nothing.  Yet, there she was taking a ziplock baggy full of sand.  We told her she could get busted and then she claimed to be a geology teacher, as if that gave her special dispensation to steal.  What kind of lame excuse is that?  If you are a teacher, it is ok to dismiss the rules?  Teach all the kids in class they can steal too? 

Karen regretfully tests the 38 degree waters.  It is a good thing I did not have the audio on.  Bad language alert.
Click to enlarge If I stand in the middle, which way does the water flow? 

 

 

 

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