More From Tuesday

Yay! Denver Airport has free wireless! And, it's FAST! Best wireless connection I have had in a week.

OK, so you saw the pictures from Artist's Point in Yellowstone Canyon. We had a crazy desire to do some hiking after we left Artist's Point, so we checked out the map and saw the South Rim trail. 2 miles, one way. Not terrible, but the prospect was MUCH cheerier when Jonathan (so graciously) offered to drive the truck to the end of the trail and wait for us there. What a gentleman, eh? So, while Jonathan had a good old time playing with his GPS and hanging out with the big red truck, we hoofed it along the South Rim. Got some nice views of the Lower Falls:

And then we got to a point in the trail where tired looking people were sitting on logs, huffing and puffing and waiting for the rest of their party. What is this, we wondered? Smart people read the sign before the ventured down, down, down. Us? We just followed Miss Bundle of Energy, Gracie, who led us down a LOT of stairs. We got closer and closer to the bottom of the falls, all the while seeing red-faced people coming back UP. The view from the bottom was awesome - really close to the falls, could look up and see people across the river at the brink of the falls, could see the rainbow from the mist, and could see the river flowing away. Too soon, though, it was time to go back UP. John and I took our time while Gracie and Katie and Kathy flew up the stairs. Want to know how many? 328!!! 328 freaking steps to get down to the bottom of the waterfall. Uncle Tom's Trail, should you ever go to Yellowstone and wish to torture yourself. Actually, it wasn't terrible. But I shook my head at people walking down with two walking sticks, already looking winded. They'd never make it back up, I was sure. But we survived!

(From top to bottom - Kathy heads down the first long flight of steps, the view of the falls from the bottom, and the view of the REALLY LONG flight of steps back up. Do we really have to walk up all those steps?)
The aftermath... You ok, John?
The darned girls look all fresh and ready to do the stairs again. What gives?

We didn't have too much farther to go to get to an overlook of the Upper Falls. Smaller than the Lower Falls, but still pretty.

We grabbed our ride, right after Kath got conned in to signing a petition to put the wolf back on the Endangered Species list (big topic out here - they just got de-listed and they are being hunted, legally, in areas surrounding Yellowstone. Some people think the genetic diversity isn't enough yet to sustain a population for very long, so are fighting the de-listing. While we were there, I think they did at least stop the fall hunting season on wolves in the park.) Anyway - the girls were happy that Mommy helped save the wolves, and that they got a cool wolf stamp on their hands. We hopped in to the big red truck again and headed across the river for a view from the brink of the Upper Falls. The photo doesn't come close to capturing the power of the water going over the falls, or the height of the mist spraying up from the bottom. It was impressive.

OK, I am taking back my "I am impressed" comments about Denver's internet. I can't get pictures to post, so those might have to wait. I may wait to post this one til tomorrow when we're home (hopefully).

Anyway, after lunch at Camp Hall we decided to hike to Mystic Falls, having heard that it was an easy hike and it was pretty. So off we went, to the Biscuit Basin, where we visited yesterday. The trail to the falls was at the far end of the Biscuit. The hike to the falls was fine, although the falls themselves were not tremendously impressive, compared to what we had seen that morning. And then we could have turned around and gone back the way we came. But did we? No, no. We looked at the sign and said, sure! We can continue the eight billion miles and just make this a loop hike. It'll be FUN! I looked way up in the sky and said "hey - those trees look cool against the blue sky." Little did I know that soon (ok, not soon, really - we're slow) we'd be right up there with those trees. It was a hot and slow hike, but the view from the top of the hill was excellent, and we actually saw part of Old Faithful erupting, from way up at the top of the hill. Kind of fun.

Somehow, Gracie manages to hike in a dress and look all fresh and clean and cute...

Mystic Falls. Not quite as impressive as the Upper and Lower Falls - we were jaded by then...

I thought those trees looked pretty, up against the nice blue sky. Way up there, right? Little did I know that soon we'd be WAY up there, too.

View from the top of the hill. Somewhere, way down at the bottom, is the Biscuit Basin and our car.
Old Faithful Lodge, and if you blow the picture up you can see a little bit of steam coming up from Old Faithful.

Back at the bottom and headed for the car - one more view of the Sapphire Pool
The girls jump in the water to wash off some dirt. The water temp isn't bad, Aunt Lissa!
Hi Gracie!

The Halls needed to do some laundry and we wanted to take them to dinner, so we trooped in to West Yellowstone for laundry, shopping, and some remarkably good Chinese food (really, if you saw West Yellowstone you'd know why we were impressed. It's three blocks big). Said good-night to the Halls and went to bed, planning on getting up at 4:30 the next morning to pack up and head in to the park early - hoping to see some wildlife.

Check back to see if we were successful!

PS - posted pictures on Wednesday from the comfort of my OWN COUCH! We did finally make it home a little before 8am this morning, and immediately crashed until about noon. AND - our luggage made it, too! Hooray for small miracles!