North Yellowstone Circle Tour

Donna K, you are the lucky winner of the "name that picture" contest.  You have won a chance to see this feature for yourself when you and Russ visit Yellowstone in September!  You are absolutely correct, that was a picture from the Mud Volcano.  Here's the whole picture:

Dave and I finally wised up and entered the park earlier today.  We got to the entry at 8:30am and didn't have put up with any traffic jams.  We drove the 14 miles to Madison in 20 minutes, a new record for us.

Today we headed north to Mammoth Hot Springs, then on to Tower Junction, east to the Lamar Valley, back to Tower, south to Canyon, west to Norris, and back to Madison and then our home-away-from-home at West Yellowstone.  Dave put a map on his blog so check it out if you want to visualize our route. 

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.  First, Mammoth Hot Springs, which we were surprised to find was mostly dormant and dry.

Minerva's Terrace

Mound Terrace

Liberty Cap, a dormant hot springs cone

Elk hanging out at Fort Yellowstone

On the way to Roosevelt we saw a coyote hunting along the road.

Wildflowers at our picnic stop in the Lamar Valley

...and a hungry raven

The scenic Lamar Valley

Another coyote on the prowl

Following daddy!

Headed towards Tower Fall, took the Calcite Springs Loop Trail and got a great view of the Yellowstone River.

Our first-ever view of Rocky Mountain big horned sheep!   

More wildflowers

Then on to Tower Falls!

We were pretty tired by now, but we made one last stop at Artists' Paintpots.