Day #3 Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful

Jon arrived at 7:50 AM after sleeping in his tent about an hour's drive away from us. He was surprised to find us still in bed after we'd told him we'd be ready at 7:30.


I could still hardly believe our son had driven 16 hours to join us at Yellowstone so we could all be together. I took a million photos of him just to prove he was there with us.


We ate breakfast at the Mammoth Hot Springs Dining room and saw elk along the way.


After breakfast we went to the Visitors' Center where Art got KC a National Park Passport. Tif and Uncle Jonny helped her apply her sticker for Mammoth Hot Springs and stamp her passport.


Mammoth Hot Springs is really spectacular and both my mother and Auntie Grace were awestruck. My mother would have enjoyed it even more if she wasn't freezing from the cold.


As we made our way to Old Faithful, we stopped at Jon's campsite which is halfway between the two points. Auntie was amazed to think of Jon sleeping out in the cold by himself. We had all offered him a space in our rooms, but he refused.


We loved seeing our first beautiful Glacier Lily.


These bison caused a minor traffic jam. We couldn't believe how close they got to us!


We had to keep a close eye on KC who was darting here and there just loving the beauty all around her.


We took hundreds and hundreds of photos of the bubbling, boiling mud volcanoes.


The hot, boiling pools of mineral water had Auntie Grace commenting that the park service should set up an area for onsens (hot baths).


I can't imagine taking a bath here.

The colors, the sounds and sunny weather that we were blessed with made our day memorable.


My mother and aunt were probably the most layered and bundled people in the park.


There was so much to see!


We saw these golden monkey flowers near the warm areas of the park.


Jon and Art had a lot of catching up to do.


Auntie Grace would later say that the incredible colors of the pools of azure waters with the skies adding even more depth and beauty would be impossible for an artist to truly capture. This is what she would remember most about this trip.


There was that occasional bit of clowning around.


The museum had explanations in Japanese which thrilled my mother and aunt. They felt that they learned a lot about the scientific wonder of the park.


We arrived at Old Faithful to find that it wasn't quite as faithful as it used to be but it did still erupt almost every 90 minutes. We were able to watch it go off a couple of times before Jon had to drive back to his campsite. Tiffany treated us all to a fancy dinner, wanting her only brother well sustained before he went back out into the cold.


We saw this bluebird out by the Old Faithful geyser and my mother called it the Shiawase no Aoi Tori. That surprised me. I didn't know the Japanese called it the Bluebird of Happiness too!

That beautiful bird did symbolise our feelings that day. We were very happy... cold... but very, very happy!