Wagons Ho!

We slept in a little this morning, allowing the boys to catch up on some much needed shut eye. We were out the door around 8:30 and headed into the park with Mammoth Springs as the first major destination.

On the trip up we saw elk, swans, geese and several bison. Along one stretch of the road we had to walk behind two gigantic bison bulls as they meandered down the lane. It was a classic Yellowstone moment, complete with crazy tourist running up alongside our van with cameras in hand (and mom yelling, "stop it you idiot!" which was highly entertaining).


Mammoth was a lot different than from my childhood trip. The biggest difference is that the springs were basically dried up. Where I remember pools overflowing and tumbling down space-like formations, this landscape looks more like dried up moon craters. It was still very interesting and for those who have not seen the "before" it was still cool.

After a quick picnic lunch we headed east towards Tower-Roosevelt. We enjoyed the spectacular views along the road and only had one minor mechanical issue when the clutch got stuck on the way up Mt. Washburn. Luckily dad was able to fix it quickly and we were on the road, never really understanding what had happened until it was over.

One of the best stops of the day was at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, partciulalry the falls. We took Uncle Tom's trail for a ways as it meandered along the side of the cliffs. This trail goes 500 feet down into the canyon via a steep stairwell. However, when we reached the top of the staircase, we realized that our little legged boys were getting tuckered out so we opted for plan B. Stephen and the boys and I continued down the trail while mom and dad returned to the van and drove to the parking lot where we would end up (saving us about a mile of walking back). The trail had several outlooks over the falls, ending at Artist's Point which is the most photographed spot in the park. You can see why.

We then made out way back up to Tower-Roosevelt to check in for our covered wagon ride and dinner. Which was sooo cool! We loaded up in modern versions of covered wagons pulled by 2 draft horses (in our case 2 Belgians named Tupp and Tye). They carted us 30 minutes into the "wilds" of the park to a corral where dinner awaited. The boys got to sit up front and "help" the driver and the shotgunner, who was our guide for the trip. We learned that the location of the corral was the previous location of a hotel formed by a western entrepreneur and eventually burned to the ground. the dinner consisted of steak, corned bread muffins, coleslaw, famous Roosevelt baked beans and watermelon. Oh yeah, and apple crisp and cowboy coffee for dessert. We were entertained by Marshall Mark, who twanged on his guitar and sang old fashioned western songs. It was a blast and we could not have enjoyed our evening more. We even saw bison up close on our trip back.