Kenny and Karen: Yellowstone Day Two

Yet another glorious day on vacation! How am I so blessed to get to spend these days with my hubby, in heaven on earth with no responsibilities except to have fun and don't forget to eat occasionally *smiles*

We've been doing terrific about waking up early and getting our day of hiking started by 7:00 at the latest. Some days we're off and running by 6:30! Quite an accomplishment for a lady who's known to like her sleep *grins*

This morning was filled with even more wildlife sightings! We came across not one, but TWO bears together!!! Unbelievable!

We're still trying to decide if this is a grizzly bear and a black bear, or two black bears (one of which is cinnamon colored). I keep trying to convince Kenny that it IS a grizzly bear, but that is kind of unlikely because Grizzly and Black bears are known enemies and probably wouldn't be paling around like this!

Kenny spied THIS majestic big horned sheep. He seemed so proud and almost royal. It was fun to snap his picture!

We hiked the tower falls trail and were rewarded with THIS beautiful water fall and a rare Bull Elk (that means a BOY elk, with the antlers, *laughs*) sighting.

Some little kids went running by us screaming to their parents...

"momma, momma, there's a Beaver right there!!"

Hmmmm, we thought to ourselves, are we going to see a beaver!?! Then there was this little guy, right on a rock...

I watched and waited with anticipation for him to pull his tail up so I could see and know FOR SURE that he was in fact a beaver. Then finally, to my amazement....he lifted his tail and it looked like a tiny squirrel tail! Definitely NOT a beaver tail! Boy those kiddo's tricked me *laughs* Kenny later determined it is a Yellow Bellied Marmot *laughs* That kind of sounds like something Yosemite Sam would say... "I'll get you you yellow bellied marmot!"

We got to investigate Mammoth Hot Springs and see the springs and smell the sulfur (not so yummy). It really looked like the surface of the moon to me! Soooo cool! For all you conspiracy theory buffs, they COULD have filmed the lunar landing here huh?

It is so amazing the way the water makes colors like this!

We attempted the Hellroaring Creek hike, and when I say attempted it makes me sad... I REALLY wanted to do this hike and see an awesome suspension bridge that we would get to cross over on foot!! Yay!

Well, we started off strong, but the further we went the steeper the downhill grade became and with all the rains the park had been having we were just bogging down in mud. I was really concerned that any minute my shoes would slip and I'd free fall rolling into a huge mud ball and taking Kenny down in the process. So, we reluctantly turned back. We did get to see this beautiful curious deer on the return trip!

We decided to hike the South Rim trail since Hellroaring Creek had eluded us. It was a longer hike, but definitely worth it. We got to see Artists point and the upper and lower falls!

I like this picture (above) because you can see the hiking trail and our trail guide *grins*

These pictures are at artists point. This is where Thomas Moran created his famous painting which helped persuade President Grant to declare Yellowstone a National Park! It now hangs at the Smithsonian in Washington DC!