Day 117 - Yellowstone (Day 3), WY

We started our final day in Yellowstone with a hot shower. Our campsite in Canyon Village included two free shower tokens per day.

Once we were clean, we jumped into the car to explore the upper loop. First stop was the Museum of the National Park Ranger. This was a small museum located in an old soldier station but it was interesting to learn more about the profession and how it has changed over the years.

Then we headed up the road to Roaring Mountain where the steam vents on this side of the hill used to roar with noise. Today they are more of a hiss but still pretty cool to see. Next was Obsidian Cliff where lava has cooled without forming crystals, creating a black glass. It was difficult to see the Obsidian from a distance but the rock formations were interesting and we enjoyed the little river that ran through it.

Back in the car, we then reached Mammoth Hot Springs, the main attraction on this loop. Here there are over 50 hot springs located on a limestone hill, each rich in colour from different algae and with very unique formations. We initially did the scenic drive around the hot springs but actually found that you couldn't see much from the car so we parked up by the visitors center and hiked the two boardwalks, upper and lower.

Just below the hot springs is Fort Yellowstone and the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District. In 1886, Yellowstone's first superintendents struggled with keeping law and order in the park so US Army soldiers were ordered to take charge. They marched into Yellowstone and built the Fort that still stands here today. It is more like a little village than a fort I would recognise. Today the buildings are hotels, restaurants, gift shops, visitor center and administration offices. We enjoyed walking around the white houses with red roofs, had a hot chocolate in one of the restaurants and went into the visitors center for a look around and to get a stamp for our National Parks Passport. This is another place in Yellowstone where you could easily spend a whole day exploring.

We left Mammoth and continued along the loop road until we were back at our campsite in Canyon Village. We had one last stop we wanted to make before we left Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which was located right next to our campsite.

This Grand Canyon is not as large as The Grand Canyon but the colours on the walls of the canyon are really beautiful. There were two drives, a North and a South, around the rim of the Canyon and a couple of short hikes to get a closer look at the river and the waterfalls. There is a hike down to the bottom of the canyon called Uncle Tom's Trail which involves walking down 328 steps over 500 vertical feet, nice an easy on the way down but there is only one way back up! Unfortunately, the trail was closed for repairs and is not due to reopen until 2019 so maybe next time we'll tackle this challenge.

We spent our last night in Yellowstone having one of our favourite meals, sausages and cowboy beans, before heading to an evening ranger talk. We usually really enjoy the ranger talks and were looking forward to learning more about the Yellowstone Bears, the topic of tonight's talk. The ranger was a young girl who was working at Yellowstone during the summer season. She was a nervous speaker and her knowledge of bears was limited, it came across as if she knew as much as we did from reading the information stations around the park. We were disappointed but what left us both angry was the amount of time she spent lecturing everyone to carry bear spray. Bear spray is on sale everywhere in Yellowstone and whilst you may need bear spray if you are doing back country hiking, I can't see how you would need by the vast majority of people yet she seemed to be scaring people into buying this expensive item. When I asked her why in Yellowstone bear spray was recommended yet in Yosemite it was illegal even though there is a bigger issue with human and bear interactions in Yosemite, her response was "the bears in Yosemite must be more intelligent compared to Yellowstone". When the talk ended, we both left before I had the opportunity to say something more about being treated like a 10 year old and headed back to our campsite for a bear-free night's sleep.

NB: We didn't see any bears whilst in Yellowstone, we didn't do any back country hikes, we stuck to the main tourist areas and we didn't waste our money on bear spray. Bear spray is just a form of pepper spray and only will only work if you manage to get close enough to spray it into a bears eyes without it accidentally blowing into your own first.