Started the day with big breakfast, packed a lunch and headed to Mammoth Springs because I wanted to see the lower half of what we saw when we took the big loop. It is amazing, stories and stories high of mineral deposits of the hot springs. We then went to Boiling River, which is where the mammoth hot springs meet the gardiner river after traveling underground for awhile. This allows you to wade in and pick your temperature from, "wow, my legs are boiling, I need to move, to AHHHH, hot tub, nice soak! We played(ok layed) there for about 2 hours and talked to various other people as they would come and go.
We then went up to the Mammoth hot springs area again and had a picnic lunch with elk grazing around the area and the usual stupid people trying to get as close as they can. My camera has a zoom lens and gets me a great shot without risk of injury! The rangers set up orange cones and sit in there cars telling people to get back. They also told Tom, "nice catch" when he ran all the way down the street to get a red bag that blew from our picnic. This was over the car intercom speaker. I suspect a citation would have been given had he not gone after it. It is $75,000 fine if you litter at Yellowstone. Thus, no litter anywhere. I always have said that we need to make punishments bigger for things and then people won't do it.
We arrived back at the campsite for a little r and r and I took a nap! What is vacation without at least one afternoon nap? We arrived at the check in for our horseback ride and went up a rode into Gallatin National Forest until it ended at our stable. We all mounted horses and took off up the mountain. Now, I am a decent rider and don't mind heights but this trail was a little narrow for me and after my horse slipped, I was even more vigilant. Austin thought it was more than he needed and we think his horse was scared of heights just like Autsin because it kept walking on the mountain above the trail and sliding down into the trail over and over. He was not pleased. Anyway, Katie got to finally trot on the way back which made her happy. We ended with a steak dinner cowboy cookout which I am not sure was worth the money but oh, well!
Home to get a few groceries and taking a page from Nana's vacation book, we are trying to get in ice cream as many times as possible. Tonight is mint chip and reeses pieces. MMMM! Early to bed as tomorrow we are climbing Mount Washburn. It is said that a herd of 20 bighorn sheep live a the top. It is listed in our hiking book as a lung buster. Hmmmm! 2.5 miles up and 1000 feet gain in elevation. At the top is a lookout and hopefully the sheep. Check in tomorrow to see if we made it.
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