Although we were in a pretty "humanized" area, there was no shortage of wildlife. There was a colony, or several, of ground squirrels in the yard, including Buster, who lived beneath our porch. He enjoyed Hadley's lost grape and was hoping we'd give him some more food, judging by his paunchy figure. He kept his distance, but did give us a couple of warning calls, which sounded like birds chirping.
The grass was tasty enough for an elk one night,
a curious bison strolled through the next morning (the kids were outside and ran in shouting "Bison! Bison!" when he suddenly appeared next to our car),
and another (or the same?) elk returned the next morning for a little sunlight snooze next to Buster. Did you know that elk sleep like cats all curled up?
On the way to our cabin, we stopped in to stretch our legs at Norris Geyser Basin. (Yellowstone's hottest geyser area)
The kids did pretty well on the boardwalks and were somewhat interested in the steamy, smelly happenings around them.
Hadley really liked the benches that looked like skateboards!
After we checked into our cabin and had some dinner, we took a little stroll through old Fort Yellowstone and the visitor's center. We discovered that elk are everywhere in this village, and there was a hidden playground!
We also learned the difference between antlers and horns
and what baby owls look like. (See the two, whitish faces in the middle of this tree?)
The next morning, the kids were up at their usual early rising time. We ate breakfast quietly and left Dad to the cabin while we hiked up the hill behind the cabins. There were some beautiful views from up there!
Then we picked up Dad from the cabin and walked over to Mammoth Hot Springs, which we had seen before, so we didn't feel like we had to see every part of it again. It seemed pretty dry this year, but they said the volume and courses change frequently.
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