Events of Friday, July 30, 2010

                Our last day at Yellowstone began with Daddy and Mommy packing up our camp in Fishing Bridge and driving us towards the exit at 7:15. We stopped a little later for breakfast near the mud volcanoes. But the special part about these volcanoes was not just the mud bubbling, but the fact that there was a herd of bison walking in the warm, and sometimes hot mud. We watched them during breakfast and marveled at how they just slipped through the barriers meant to keep humans out and walked away. After they left we walked around the boiling mud pots slowly, for many of us had sores and bruises from our long hike yesterday.

                We drove away from the mud volcanoes and went to the Canyon Visitor Center where we learned a lot about the land formations and rocks. Then we drove some more and arrived at the Mammoth Hot Springs Visitor Center. There were exhibits of stuffed animals posed in life-like tableaus there and Lindsey and Caitlin enjoyed blindfolding me and then allowing me to see again when I was eye to eye with a roaring mountain lion, which, naturally, freaked me out. After going to the Visitor Center we hiked around some terraces and hot springs that smelled strongly of sulfur, which I didn’t like, but Ben, forever loving disgusting things, said he loved the sulfur smell.

                Next, we continued driving towards our final stop in Yellowstone: the famous Boiling River. This is where the Gardiner River meets with the scalding waters of hot springs pouring into the river. Following a nice hike to the river, we found that the river is shallow and the current is swift. It was hard to walk on the stones on our bruised and battered feet, so we sort of floated and scooted down river until we found a spot where the cold river water mixed perfectly with the piping hot water from the hot springs. Dad managed to make it across the river and found another elk carcass as he explored. After we swam around for about a half-hour, we went back to our RV to drive through the Roosevelt Arch and exit Yellowstone National Park.

                Around 8 o’clock we started to feel hungry, and stopped at the Costco in Bozeman for dinner and much-needed milk. (Our schedules have been very irregular lately. Last night we had dinner at 9!) When we had finished our dinner and were just starting dessert, a little girl came up and showed us all her “purty fower” on her T-shirt. She seemed to take a special liking to our little table and traveled many times between me and her mom, saying, “Hello big sister! How you been? I’ve been purty goooood. What doing? I’ll be right back, OK? BYE!” From our small talk, I learned that she was two and a half, and that her daddy was shopping while her mom and her mom’s friend were having a “gul’s night out”. When we were leaving, she said, “See you tomorrow, OK?” Oh, how we miss helping out in preschool at church!

                After dinner we went to our campground in Cardwell. There we finally showered, which was heavenly, as we gladly scrubbed off two days worth of hiking dirt, mosquito spray and sunscreen. At last we went to sleep.