Yellowstone Part 2-More Thermal Features, a Wagon Ride, and a Really Big Steak!!

We started our day at Mammoth Hot Spings. This stop has 2 main areas-the lower terrace and the upper terrace. Both areas have very similar features but I preferred the lower area because you could get a little closer to the terraces.  Limestone is found in the ground at this location.  Hot water is mixed with dissolved CO2.  This makes a solution of weak carbonic acid.  As this solution rises thru the rock, it dissolves the calcium carbonate, the primary compound in limestone.  At the surface, the calcium carbonate is deposited in the form of travertine, the rock that forms the terraces.  They are beautiful-especially with the mountains in the background.

From there we traveled along the northern road toward the Roosevelt Lodge and the Lamar Valley.  It was a beautiful drive.  We saw some pronghorns - which are the fastest land mammals on the continent.  They can run 35 mph for 4 miles!

We also saw a lot of bison-they were everywhere in huge herds.  The males can weigh over 2000 lbs, run 40mph, and jump over 9 feet!!

Last we decided to do a wagon ride to Yancy's Hole for a cowboy cookout.  We started with a pretty wagon ride thru the Roosevelt Valley.

The horses who were pulling our wagon were super huge!! They were named Poncho and Lefty.  Interesting fact about horse pulling teams-they were trained to pull together when they were colts and they pull together for life.  They let me drive the team-it is much harder than it looks.  You have to control the speed and     constantly give them feedback to keep them on the road.  I was NOT very good-we kept going to fast and leaving the road!!  The horses were both super sweet and loved getting attention.

The cowboy cookout was yummy and the steaks were huge New Yorks.  I ate a lot!!  After some silly cowboy stories we headed back to Roosevelt Lodge in our wagon-I left the driving to the professionals this time.  It was a fun day.