Day 4: 30/9/00 ==> Drive to Yellowstone + first glance.
Today we had a shorter drive, only 300 miles. We set up camp at Gardiner, which was situated just outside of the park.
After setting up camp we drove to the visitor center in the park. There was a military band playing. It signified the 25th birthday of the transfer of the park from the military to the National Park Association. There we also saw a lot of elk. They were just standing there eating their grass, but as soon as the band started to play another song, the elks all ran away.
Next stop was the Mammoth Hot Springs. James let us out of the van on the top of the trail. We then walked down on wouden sidewalks. Mammoth Hot Springs are terraces formed from calcium carbonate, the stuff were vulcanoes are made from inside. It all smelled a lot of the sulfur that was coming to the surface. There were also a lot of nice pool with all kinds of colors in it. James picked us up at the bottom of the trail and then we went bathing in the "Boiling River".
This is not a joke!!! This river is a combination of a hot spring and the cold Yellowstone River. At the beginning of the "Boiling River" the water is really boiling, but when you go a little bit further downstream the Yellowstone River merges in and the water begins to cool down. Now it was just up to us to find the perfect spot to bath. If you go to close to the left(where the hot spring runs) you can get burned, but if you go to far to the right (where the Yellowstone River runs) you can actually freeze your butt off. So you just had to find a good spot in the middle and then you could literally sit their even when the temperatures drop below normal, because the hot spring makes the water very nice to bath in.
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