The long hike

We were a little sore this morning, but not too bad. Rach had a great idea to switch up our plan and not do Old Faithful on a holiday. We decided to do a long hike to two lakes, totalling about 10 miles.

We saw a group of otters playing in the lake on the way out, so we added that to our list of seen animals!

Otters!

It was a beautiful day and in the parking area for the trail, we were greeted by a moose and her baby. Rachael got some very good pictures. We have seen so many buffalo, but no moose or elk. We keep looking!

The moose (still no antlers.....)

The wonderful bear sign we were greeted with as we started our hike

About a half mile down the trail, we came around a corner and there was a buffalo just sitting by the path. Remembering the 30 miles an hour, we detoured around while keeping a close eye. Rach was watching him and not her steps and walked into a pile of buffalo crap, which we washed off her new boots in the next stream!

The buffalo in the path

Rachael's new boots - initiated with buffalo crap

We then saw another buffalo as we crossed a corner in another half mile. This one had a crazy look in his eye so we hurried and didnt take any pictures. We made it to the first lake without any other challenges. It was very clear (cascade lake).

Cascade Lake

A swan on Cascade Lake

We headed to the second lake (grebe lake). After a mile, I saw a guy waving at me and pointing. We saw a screech owl that they had been watching for two hours (they are a lot more patient than I am). It flew to another branch while we were there and we got a picture.

Owl in flight

Grebe lake was nice as well and we ate lunch and rested there. The great thing about the hike is that we only saw 4 people the entire way there -in stark contrast to the hundreds of people the day before!

Grebe Lake

Rachael in the water at Grebe Lake

On the way back, we came across more buffalo on the trail. Right after that we saw a coyote hunting for mice in the field. We got some great shots because we were pretty close.

The coyote in the path

We decided to do one more thing when we got done and went to the west thumb geyser basin and saw some more cool boiling springs. These weren't smelly though!

Very cool pool at West Thumb

We took a wrong turn on the way back, but made it safely and are headed for dinner. Tomorrow we will go to old faithful and hope that the crowds don't kill us!

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