Yellowstone - Day Seven

    Our last full day in Yellowstone, and we made the most of it! We started our day off with a look at the tallest waterfall in the park – the Lower Falls. It is spectacular! The smoke from the forest fires was pretty heavy today, so the sky was very gray instead of blue, but the pictures were still amazing. It was a bit cool this morning, and it did not warm up as quickly as it has the past few days, which we think was due to the smoke covering the sun. After spending a while enjoying the views of the Lower falls, we drove down to the Upper Falls overlook. These falls are both part of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which is in fact, pretty grand! I’m not sure how many feet down it goes, but it is a lot! The canyon walls are colored in many different hues, and I think you could look at it for hours.

          We went on a moose hunt next. We were determined to see some down by Lake Yellowstone. We were not so lucky, as no moose decided to make an appearance for us. We did get to spot a few elk alongside the road though. The lake was fun anyway, even without the moose. We went to the docks, and to the iconic Yellowstone Lake Lodge. We stopped at Grant Village and had a picnic on the lakeshore. The lakeshore is made up of very tiny volcanic rock. The kids found this  interesting and would have stayed there for hours if we had let them. They played in the rocks and in the water and we had a nice lunch with a view. Zack even napped on the beach.

          We stopped at the geyser basin on the lakeshore and took the boardwalk through it. Some of the geysers are even in the lake.

          Our next stop was the Old Faithful area because I had seen a souvenir I just had to have. I checked my Yellowstone app to see when Old Faithful would go off, and it said, 3:34. I looked at the clock and it was 3:32! We parked quickly and ran across the large parking lot to see the eruption. We arrived breathless only to find out I had been looking at a clock in our home time zone, and it was an hour from eruption…..

          We got our souvenirs and headed to our hike of the day – Mystic Falls. This is a tremendous hike that I would highly recommend. It starts out in the Biscuit Basin geyser area, and then winds through a pine forest alongside a beautiful mountain creek. The prize at the end is a massive waterfall roaring out of the mountains. The waterfall is still in a thermal area, so there are little hot springs running into the water at this spot. It was fun to feel the hot water mix with the cool mountain stream. The kids loved climbing the boulders and feeling the wind and the spray from the waterfall. The rocks are not slick like the ones at home, and it makes for jumping from one to the next a lot safer. After taking many pictures, we hopped on the high trail and hiked to the top of the mountain. I would guess we were around 9,000 feet up by then. There were a lot of switchbacks to get up to the top and pretty precarious ledges. All in all the hike was fantastic  - the pine trees, the mountain stream, the waterfall, and the panoramic views were all wonderful!

          Everyone was tired and hungry when we got back to the car. So with just a quick drive through Firehole Road, we headed back to our campsite. We finished our evening with dinner and a campfire. Tomorrow we head down to the Tetons.