Torres Go West: Yellowstone NP, Wyoming

Hey Friends and Family,

On Wednesday, October 5^thwe pulled into our campground, after driving all afternoon, Yellowstone RV park, only about a mile from the North Yellowstone Entrance. We got into the park, RV and all and headed to see the sights. First we went to the Albright Visitor Center near Mammoth Springs where Daniel and Anna got their Junior Ranger activity books. Next to the Visitor Center are some houses about 100 years old. Out in the front lawn of one of these houses was a herd of elk, about 6 females, just as calm as can be eating the grass in the front yard. After we got out of the Visitor Center we saw a buck with the females, he had a huge rack! We drove just out of the Mammoth Springs Village to the Mammoth Springs itself. These are hot springs just under the surface of the earth which let out water and a bunch of steam. Now, it’s about 45 degrees outside and raining while we were on the boardwalk to the springs, so we were seeing a bunch of steam! The hot water from the springs was letting off a bunch of steam, which was billowing into the air. After Mammoth Springs we headed down the road and saw a huge hill, not quite a mountain, but a hill blowing off steam. We got out, hiked back to it and saw it was called Roaring Mountain. This mountain was blowing steam and also making a roaring noise, not really loud, but you could definitely hear it! Next we stopped at the Norris Geyser Basin where we saw more hot springs, mud pots, and a few small geysers. The mud pots are holes in the ground with hot spring underneath them and it makes the mud boil. We got back to the RV, at a quick lunch and drove on to Artists Paintpots. This is a beautiful place, hot springs, many mud pots, geysers and gorgeous colors in the ground! We walked around the area, and saw some interesting mud pots; one was about 3 yards long and about 2 yards wide with white mud. This white mud was really thick, and it was bubbling, so it was throwing the mud up about 2 feet high. We also walked past a mud pot that was pinkish and bubbling like nuts, it wouldn’t stop! Also, we saw a large geyser letting off so much stem that it fogged up our cameras! When we got down a bit lower we saw how Artists Paintpots got their name, there was blue, green, pink, red, yellow and even red in the rocks and in the hot spring pools. Our final hike was to Gibbon Falls, one of the waterfalls in the park. We made it to one of the few campgrounds in the park that is still open, checked in and got set up. As we were setting up the RV we realized that it was snowing! We decided to just hunker down in the RV with some hot chocolate for the afternoon and watch some Andy Griffith. We ate dinner then some of us played in the snow for a little bit. Ben blogged about the snow, mom and dad went for a walk, we made some baked pears watched a bit more Andy Griffith and that pretty much finished up our evening!