Paradise Valley and Yellowstone National Park!

This  morning we drove south through gorgeous Paradise Valley following the Yellowstone river through Gardiner, and the North Entrance to Yellowstone Park, our first ever national park, designated by President Ulysses S Grant in 1872.   OH my, so much to see…. and so many people to look…the first animals we saw in the Park were elk on the lawn!  at Mammouth Hot springs (extra)….We drove west a bit into the Lamar valley for a walk but didn’t see much other than a few bison.   They do like to walk on the road. (extra)
Yellowstone is a supervolcano, sitting on a hotspot for 2 million years,   hosting more geothermal features (geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles)  than any other place on earth… Mammoth hot springs produces these terraces of limestone which are always evolving…any color is due to bacteria and algae that live in the warm water…(extra).

We are staying 2 nights at the classic Old Faithful Inn, huge, crawling with people,  built in 1904 of logs that rise 80 feet in the impressive lobby, and a huge stone fireplace. (extra)  Old Faithful geyser can be seen from the deck for it’s more or less regular eruption every 90 minutes or so….