Flora Hiker: Mammoth Hot Springs

Got up and got going on our fourth day of the trip. It was campground moving day.

My daughter complained about having to eat a bagel and cream cheese that morning but finally gave in after much protesting when she figured out that her stomach hurt because she was hungry. As Oprah would say "it was her ah ha moment."

We drove through the Hayden Valley and saw quite a few bison and geese but not much else. We didn't stop at many of the scenic sites because we knew we needed to have a camp site by 10 in the morning or we might not find one in the park. We had planned to get a site at Tower Campground, or Slough Creek if there wasn't any room. We could have found a spot at Tower but the campground wasn't very nice (crowded, too open). Our biggest complaint there were the few sites that had flat spots for a tent. I can't believe how many sites were crooked. We quickly left Tower and headed for Slough Creek. Unfortunately, they were full. Overall, I wasn't very impressed with this campground either (not many flat spots). We started getting worried at this point because it was after 10 and we were still searching. This process is extremely tedious in Yellowstone since it takes so long to get anywhere. We finally ended up at the Mammoth Campground around 11:30 in the morning. It felt like it took all day and we still had to set up camp for the day! We were both grumpy at this point. This campsite ended up being nice. We had 'flushies' and a flat site w/ shade. We did notice that it was warmer at this campground since it is lower in elevation than the rest of the park.

We set up our tent

made lunch

and drank lots of water to battle the heat

After lunch it was time to organize (an ongoing, everyday battle)

Our main way of organizing was through the use of my shopping bags and crates. Next time we will have boxes with tops on them so that we can stack, stack, stack.

While we are cooking, cleaning, setting up or down the two free loaders get to read their National Geographic magazines (and they can't even smile at the camera for me)

Since we were actually at our campsite for nap time we got one of them to sleep before we headed out for the day's festivities.

We decided to do the Beaver Pond Loop hike (5.66 miles).

Cooper made it the whole way and Quinn made it a little over 3 miles before we scooped her up and put her in the Sherpani (backpack). We didn't see any beavers but did see a couple of elk and a neat bird with an orange head and a yellow body. The last 1.5 miles of the hike were made quickly due to an encroaching thunderstorm (with lightning).

Daddy took off w/ the precious cargo in the backpack and Coop and I ran/walked the rest of the way with the storm chasing us. We caught up with them at the Mammoth Springs Hotel and ate our PB&J's under the roof (it never did rain more than a couple of sprinkles.)