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Yellowstone National Park
Mammoth Hot Springs and Steam
We drove into Yellowstone today with a plan to visit Mammoth Hot Springs first off.
A stop on the way at a cool saddle shop in Gardiner to buy a belt for my camera turned out to be really fun. This was a shop for REAL men … Saddles, gun holsters, cowboy hats, after shave and razors. You could buy an off the left saddle for $2,500 – or have one custom made at the back of the shop for $3,500.
Gardiner Saddle Shop
This park is so massive, you have to do it in chunks. I am glad we have a week here – even with that, we will only scratch the surface of what this place has to offer.
The hot springs is an amazing sight – but busy with tourists. The sulphur smell really gets up your nose too. We felt a great need to escape them and hike in peace.
If you hike on the trails, you are in bear country, which is scary. “Your safety cannot be guaranteed”, the park leaflets warn. So strong was our need to escape though that we decided to go for it. I put the hotel keys in my lanyard to make a clanking noise and Tim strapped on the pepper spray. We set off on the Beaver ponds trail. This is one of the top day hikes suggested in the park leaflets. There were great views and the beaver ponds were really interesting.
