Yellowstone Sinks!

Yes, it stinks! We had no idea it would stink. When we were driving in that first day, we thought little C or L kept farting. Nope, we realized, it was just Yellowstone. But we will get to more of that later.

For our first hike we decided to see Upper and Lower Falls. I love water falls and found a nice 5 mile loops that had some lakes toward the end of the hike that we could cool off in.

The water fall was beautiful! It was crazy how much water was rushing over in one spot. We found rainbows near every waterfall.

Selfies are the best way to get a picture of all of us. We look happy, yep, we are not very far into the hike.

C is starting to get hot and wanting to go into that water.

The bummer about the hike was each time we came to a beautiful look out or another waterfall (there were 3), there was a huge crowd of people. We were taking a hike to spots where there were parking lots. We were doing all the work that people could just drive up to. That was really a big disappointment when we thought we were going to have a nice peaceful hike!

After we passed the 2nd waterfall, we came upon this elk. We waited a while and then he just kept creeping toward us.

We had to walk off the trail to let the elk pass. He was so cute and had velvety antlers.

Back to the crowds looking at the beauty.

The waterfalls were amazing, but the crowds took a little out of the nature for me. Really, there were SO many people!

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Yes, it sounds funny, but that's that they call it, "of the Yellowstone." The colors are amazing.

Finally, we passed all the people and the parking lots. We came to an area that looked like a dessert and heard some boiling sounds. Then we smelled it! The stink. 

The were so cool, but so stinky! Sulfur.

Besides the stink, it was getting really hot! Hiking in about 85 degrees with no shade. We couldn't wait to get to the lake to take a dip.

And then we reach the first lake! What a bummer. It was cool, completely filled with lily pads, that's probably why it was called "Lily Pad Lake." Maybe we should read the hike descriptions a little better next time.

Finally, a secluded, beautiful, clear lake.

 It was called Clear Lake and it was true to it's name. We could see the bottom all the way through.

Of course we went in...

Only to later find out that the lake was acidic and we shouldn't go in. Luckily, our skin didn't peal off or anything. 

The rest of the hike was very peaceful.

We saw these big guys along the trail. Again we had to go off trail to avoid them.

Happy Trails...