For our third and last day at Yellowstone we decided it was time to see the bubbling mud. We started by driving up to the Mud Volcano site. As we drove along we had beautiful views of Yellowstone Lake. Once there the highlight of this short boardwalk hike is the Mud Volcano itself. The Mud Volcano once looked like a small volcano, but back in the 1800's it erupted, essentially destroying itself. Now it is a crater full of bubbling mud, but still interesting to look at. Another feature we particularly liked was Dragon's Mouth Spring. There is a big vertical crevice in the rock from which hissing steam and a roaring sound emit constantly. You don't have to be a child to easily imagine that there is a dragon hiding in that cave! Brady decided to pretend it was a Lego dragon because that was a little less scary. We saw two bison sitting very close to the hydrothermal features. They all look like they are boiling, but they are instead roiling, bubbling due to the rising gases, not the high heat. The smell is horrible in this area because of all of the sulphur bubbling up constantly.
Speaking of horrible smell, we next visited Sulphur Caldron which was right across the street. This is one of the most acidic springs in Yellowstone, having a pH about the same as battery acid! It definitely stunk but it was really cool to look at.
Next we moved on to Canyon Village where we checked out the visitor center, which was great, and picked up some things for lunch. We decided to do the South Rim Drive to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Before we did that, though, we checked out the Upper Falls which is a really pretty waterfall. After picnicking at the Wapiti Lake trailhead we set off on a short hike along the Clear Lake trail. This trail was only 2.25 miles long, but I was a little nervous when someone told me there had been a bear mauling along that trail last year! He reassured me by saying that it had been spring and the bear had a cub, and that if we made lots of noise we would be fine. I figured with a five year old who sings constantly and two teenaged boys the noise wouldn't be a problem, but I have never been so alert while hiking in my life! We didn't see any bears, thank goodness, but we did see several male elk which was really neat. When we started our hike they were laying down up by a stand of trees, but when we were returning they had come down and were crossing the road. One of them ended up blocking our path, but it was really fun to see them so up close.
After our hike we returned to camp for showers and a whole lot of laundry in preparation for our departure tomorrow. By the time the laundry was finished a storm had come in, so we ended up back at the Lake House Restaurant where we had started our Yellowstone trip! It was really fun to watch the lightning storm from the safety of the restaurant rather than our tents, and it was nice to not have to do dishes. By the time we finished dinner the storm had passed. Our tents withstood the storm just fine, although they got soaked! Tomorrow we pack up and head out of Yellowstone.
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