We tend to linger in Yellowstone as long as possible. Our next destination was Pinedale WY where Mark had a meeting the next day. Since there was no rush to get there, we made a few more stops. The walk to Harlequin Lake was an easy 1 mile round trip. Loved the lily pad covered water.
We made a quick run into a gift shop in Grant Village to get our soda fix:( and we had to commemorate the NPS 100th Birthday!
Another stop at West Thumb.
Compared to other trips, we hadn't seen a whole lot of wildlife so it was a treat to watch this group of Elk that were stopping traffic. There were probably 8-10 cows but the real show stoppers were the babies {we could see 3 of them}
After one more picnic in the park, we headed south
We whizzed by the Tetons and Jackson so that we could find Granite Hot Springs. A pool was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's and now this natural hot spring is maintained by the Forest Service. You can pay a fee to soak in the man made pool OR you can take your chances and hope to snag the one pocket the locals know about just beneath the falls. Of course we chose the latter;) Mark seems to always know about these unmarked places. It was a real gamble because you can't see the pool from the road and it's too intimate for more than one small group. We took our chances and crossed the icy river {and I do mean ICY}. It was also very slippery and fast moving which I think is what Emm is trying to tell Mark here:)
When we got over there a couple was just leaving .. whew! We also knew that another group had arrived after us. Trying to find that balance between making it worth your time and being considerate wasn't easy. It was beautiful but would have been more relaxing without other people waiting to soak.
We stopped on the Hoback River for a while in hopes that Kars and Emm {Bay already has} could catch their Snake River Cutthroat for the Cutt Slam. Only Emmrey had success this time.
We got to Pinedale well after dinner and we were all hungry and some were ornery. We found a local burger joint that hit the spot and called it a night. Mark left early the next morning for his meeting at the GF office. Bailee wasn't feeling great and so she slept at the hotel most of the day. I took the other girlies to the Rec Center. Pinedale is a really small town, but they have a pretty awesome rec center. The girls LOVED it and we spent hours there playing in the lazy river and going down the slide.
Later that evening Mark wanted to go for a drive to check out Fremont Lake not far from town.
This was the girls "on the edge of falling in". They so funny!!
Our final stop on the way home was at Fontenelle to do some fossil hunting
Mark has a really cool fossil in his office that he found here a few years ago. We didn't have great luck but honestly the hunt is as much of the fun.
The car vibe is sure different on the way home. It's hard to return to "life" after nine days of adventures. Until the next one!
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