Rafting the Yellowstone River

 

Thursday was our day for whitewater rafting!  This was our first time rafting and we were excited, although a little nervous about having to wear a wetsuit because of the cold water.

In the small town of Gardiner, we ended up having to get breakfast sandwiches at the grocery store.  We were able to eat them at the rafting company overlooking the river.  

 At 9:00 we were suited up by the Montana Whitewater Rafting Company.  And I was actually a little warm at first!

We only had a 5 minute drive until we got to the put-in spot.  Our guide's name was Zach and we were going to raft class 2-3 rapids.  The entire trip would be about 21 miles.  We only had about 2-3 rapid parts of the run, though.  This was really fun, but I wished there had been more.  We got to stop for lunch on the river and also an extra stop to see a dead bear.  The bear was a grizzly bear Tag 1197.  He was interesting to see, but a little sad.  He kind of looked like a big stuffed bear or a sleeping bear.  

You can't really see us, but we were on the second row and Dave had his go-pro on his helmet.

The last 3 miles were the ones that got long...no rapids, but it got very windy and we were getting cold.  It was so windy that when they were loading the rafts, one of them blew off the stack.  

The elk would be in people's yards in Gardiner

After our day on the river, we cleaned up and got an early pizza dinner before heading into Yellowstone to explore Mammoth Springs.  It was kind of rainy, but we went anyway.

  

This was the original entrance to the park.  

Mammoth springs was another area with boardwalks to take you around to see the hot springs.  

Liberty Cap

Palette Spring

Devil's Thumb

Minerva Terrace

Mound Terrace

Canary Spring

Cupid Spring

Cleopatra Terrace

It was interesting to see how the hot springs killed the vegetation around it.  There would be green on one side of the mountain and then what looked like wasteland near the springs.

We took a short hike, even shorter because we ran into a group of elk grazing.  Very cool!

The wasteland look of  Mammoth Springs

More elk by the river.  We also saw a grizzly bear cross the street, but we didn't have our phones ready in time to take a picture.

It had been a fun day and tomorrow we were headed to West Yellowstone to finish our races!