July 7 recreated Yellowstone

I have no idea what happened to what I had written off-line so I recreated this post using Zoe's journal.

We all had scones for breakfast this morning.  We decided to drive north today, so went up to Mud Volcano and saw (and smelled) Dragon’s Mouth.  We walked the boardwalk around to all of the geysers and then got back to the truck.  Further up the road, we pulled off onto a side spur and walked a bit to a great viewpoint to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  We explained to the girls that the waterfall we were looking at was the same one etched on glass on the door to our screened-in porch at home. We stopped at Canyon Village for an early pb&j lunch and the girls got their passports stamped.  We continued on towards Mammoth Hot Springs and on the way we ran into a huge construction hold-up.  We had to wait quite some time before it was our side’s turn to go onto the one-lane road.  We passed a contractor’s truck parked on the side of the road and right behind it was a buffalo lying down in the shade of the truck.  We figured the buffalo must be a state worker.  At Mammoth Hot Springs, we stopped to talk a long walk around the large terraces - the size alone was quite impressive.  We got up to the Visitor Center area and we parked near the post office.  There was an elk nearby so we had to detour off of the sidewalk to get around him.  The girls opted for a second lunch (think Hobbits again).  We checked out the general store and then headed back to the truck.  This time we had to cross the street to detour around several elk, including 2 babies.  We drove north about 5 miles so the girls could have another state (Montana).  We then headed back to Fishing Bridge by a different route to avoid the construction.  We drove over a mountain and stopped to see a petrified tree.  It was pretty cool as the kids had never seen anything like it.  We all took showers at Fishing Bridge and that felt wonderful!  The girls made ham steaks for dinner with applesauce and raw veggies (arranged beautifully by Ella).  We read another chapter of Caddie Woodlawn and then played pinochle until it was time for bed.