Yellowstone, Day 2

On the second day, we breakfasted in our room, enjoyed the room's view of snow falling in the forest, and then hopped in the car to check out new areas in the north/east section of the park.  It was a very overcast day with intermittent clouds, rain/sleet/snow, and sunshine, which provided an interesting, changing backdrop to the scenery.  It was still winter through Dunraven Pass, and we made our hoodies and windbreakers work in the 40-degree temperatures.

Tower Fall
Our first major stop was to hike around Tower Fall, which apparently was no competition for the puddle that Hadley found at the overlook. 

Though the trail to the base of the falls was closed, we were able to hike all the way down to the Yellowstone River.  It was a nice, wide trail with lots of trees and pretty views.

The descent to the water was a little steep and slippery, but once we got down there, Owen couldn't wait to toss more sticks into the river.  But we didn't stay too long, as you can see the next storm headed in from the canyon below.  Made it back to the car just in time!

We continued the scenic drive west toward Mammoth Hot Springs.  On the way, we saw a Petrified Tree, 

had some lunch,

And spotted two black bears.  The dark blob in the middle is a bear!  We didn't stop with the rest of the bear jam to take a decent picture.

 Mammoth Hot Springs

This was a popular place, so we had to park on the upper terraces and walk down some stairs to see the lower ones.  

Owen liked leading on the boardwalks again, though he was getting tired.  Hadley loved running after him, only after she had dawdled enough to lose sight of them.

Hadley also enjoyed trying to block other families from proceeding.  I think she starts getting pretty weird when she's tired.  She would stand like this until they noticed her, and then she would run back toward me and wrap around my leg like she was scared. Then repeat a dozen times.

By the end of the terrace loop, she was pretending she was a dog and crawling on the boardwalk.  Sigh...  I think this ended with me carrying her off kicking and screaming because it was taking so long.

Overdue naps were had by kids in the car on the way back to the lodge, and a family nap may have occurred in the parking lot when we got there.  

Grand Canyon Hike
After some down time in the room, we took a trail from the lodge area to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  

It wasn't really the best view point along the canyon, but at least the hike was pretty.  

 (A view of the upper canyon we had seen on our drive.)

We were getting hungry for dinner, so we didn't venture down the canyon for more vistas.  We turned around and headed back to the cafeteria.  After dinner, we had some more "quiet time", and all slept pretty well!  We learned that bedtimes can be adjusted on vacation to better align with sunset.  :)