Woke to build a fire and warm the room. Worked great! Had breakfast of a chocolate muffin large enough to share by two and coffee. Melodie prepared our PB&J sandwich and we loaded the car and took off for Mammoth around 9a after stopping briefly to fill up the car with gas.
Stopped at Wraith Falls and had a little 1-mile round trip hike up to the falls. Undine Falls was next and just an overlook at the side of the road after parking. Reached Mammoth and went straight to the Visitor’s Center. Purchased 2 post cards and went to the post office for stamps. It’s noon and the Post is closed up tight! What’s that all about? Oh well, wrote out my cards and will try for stamps somewhere else. Had lunch in the car and went to the hotel to checkin. Too early to get our room and discovered today is Saturday! No wonder the Post Office is closed. No Saturdays or Sundays here in Wyoming. AND it’s my brother’s birthday too! Happy Birthday, Marion!
Took the drive/hike around Mammoth and will save the big hike around the hot springs for tomorrow morning with less people, we hope. Saw beautiful creations by the dripping of calcium carbonate in the waters as they flow from hot springs on their path. Some may look like snow but it is all rock.
This place doesn’t feel like Yellowstone. The buildings are fairly new and give an ambiance of an upscale (not woodsy) area like a ski resort. And there are TONS of people! Have to drive slowly and carefully as they walk out in front of you or stand in the road to take a picture. I’m driving and snapping a pic out the window and looked back to the road to just miss hitting a tourist in the middle of the lane for his elk photo op. Finished the circle drive with side hikes and went straight to Gardiner.
This is our only place for laundry and WiFi…or so we thought. The wifi at the Laundromat didn’t work so we played with our pictures and wrote this journal entry. Will have to find another. Woman working the Wash Tub Laundromat gave us a great suggestion for dinner at the Wokking Panda which is owned and operated by a Chinese husband/wife team. We’ll give it a shot. Disappointment. The sweet and sour pork was poor so I ate half of it and threw the rest away. Melodie saved hers leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Will try the western restaurant for a salad bar tomorrow so our bodies will love us again.
Returning to Mammoth, two elk had moved from the green in front of the post office to across from the Mammoth Hotel with park rangers in tow. The rangers keep tourists away from the elk for the safety of the tourist NOT the elk. Signs remind you of the dangers of approaching wildlife but many people ignore them.
Got our cabin (C34) and settled in for the night with our two double beds and a sink. The showers and restrooms are a short walk. It’s hot in our room and we open windows and pray for a cool night breeze. The screens are well worn and brittle with small and large holes in them that I plug with Kleenex. One screen has half of each of two sides torn from the frame. New screens are in order here! Windows will be closed when we decide to call it a night.
We finish our journal and exporting photos in hopes of using the internet at a Gardiner coffee spot to update our blogs for the past four days.
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