Day 13 - Yellowstone, day 2

Our second day in Yellowstone was just as good as the first!  This time we took on the east side of the park's figure 8 roadways, starting at Mammoth Hot Springs.  This whole area has been constructed through the buildup of calcium carbonate as it bubbles out of the ground in water heated by geothermal activity.  There are different levels of terraces that have been formed by different springs over time, but they don't know exactly what has caused the geothermal activity because this area is outside of the boundary of Yellowstone's supervolcano caldera. 

From Mammoth we made our way to Tower Junction, stopping briefly to see the petrified tree.  Near Tower Junction you can stop to see Tower Falls, named for the huge towers of rock rising above the falls.

From there we rode south, over Mount Washburn, to Canyon Village and Yellowstone Falls.  Canyon Village is situated just north of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, carved over time by the flow of the Yellowstone River.  We didn't spend too much time here, but we did get a look at the lower falls and of the canyon itself, which are both simply stunning.

Our final stop for the day was to go back to the Grand Prismatic Spring.  When we were there yesterday we could see a viewing platform on the hill behind the spring and we really wanted to see the spring from there but we couldn't see how to get there.  A little computer research and we knew we needed to go to the Fairy Falls trail head in order to be able to get to the platform.  It was well worth the extra time because the view was amazing! 

On the way back to Gardiner for the night we ran into a bit of an elk-jam and had to stop and take a few pictures.  We only saw one deer and several solitary bison today so we're hoping to see more tomorrow morning on the way out the northeast side of the park.