Monday, the 4th of July! No man-made fireworks for us today. But Yellowstone had some surprises in store for us instead.
The day didn't start out very well, though. The air conditioner had frozen up around 2 a.m. so that the room was stifling, making it hard to sleep. It finally cooled off a little a couple of hours later but it was a bad night; we woke up feeling a lot more tired than normal. But then we drove back into the park and forgot about how tired we were!
First we went up to Mammoth and had a quick breakfast at the snack bar there. Last time we went through there 6 years ago the place had been crowded and noisy and the food not too good. This time it was quiet, relaxed, and since it was breakfast they couldn't cause too much damage. After that we headed for Tower towards our final destination of Canyon.
We saw multiple waterfalls and bison and elk all day! The elk were grazing in Mammoth; the bison were walking across the roads, and the waterfalls were flowing extra strong because of the heavy snowpack which is now melting. There is still large amounts of snow on the upper ridges of the park; some of the snow fields came right down to the road causing some people to stop and play in the snow. I wonder if they were from Florida?
Overall I would say it was not as crowded today; could that be cause it was the 4th and people were home celebrating? Still, this is Yellowstone in July so there were lots of people on the roads and in the parking lots but we managed to find spots to abandon the car for a few minutes where ever we went. We even got in some good hiking; the boys wanted to hike to the brink of Lower Falls so we did and managed to survive the climb back up. We walked the Mud Volcano trail as well as the West Thumb Geyser Basin walk, and saw both Upper and Lower Falls from their overlooks.
On the way in we stopped at Roosevelt to check out the lodge, and later we drove by Lake for the same reason. The Roosevelt Lodge is a gathering place with a dining room and is old and rustic, but just the type of place you'd expect to find and stay at in Yellowstone. When we were looking for lodging for the trip the website listed only double beds and shared baths and 2 logs for the fireplace per night. Sounds great! At Lake there was both a lodge and a hotel; the lodge was the old log-style place and looked cosy whereas the hotel was relatively newer but in yellow! But it was right on the lake and visible from the water. I would stay at either.
Canyon on the other hand is relatively modern; the cabins had queen beds and on-suite toilets but we didn't see the lodge; I hear there is a nice one nearby. It was also very busy; the dining room was mediocre and the cafeteria was crowded. And then it rained, with lightning and thunder, to celebrate the 4th. Nature's fireworks are much better, I'd say.
Since we were done anyway for the day we grabbed some groceries from the store and headed for our "Deluxe Cabin" with 2 queen beds and then relaxed and got ready for bed while the kids pestered us wanting to use the cartridge brewing system. So before hopping into bed we had Lemon Zinger tea (yuck).
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