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for miles. We also took a loop road to the Firehole Canyon and the falls that carved it over the years. We just don't have anything quite like this in Texas and I cannot take enough pictures to really show how delightful it is to drive along side this beautiful river.

They are doing road construction in Yellowstone, too, so we were running late to meet up with the others at Canyon. Surprisingly, we all arrived within minutes of each other and found each other right away. We drove over to the brink of the Upper Yellowstone Falls where we had a picnic on the back of Bill and Nellie's coupe before walking down to watch the water drop over the edge into the canyon far below. Joe and Betty went on but the Howells followed us to the other viewing points of the Falls including the awe-inspiring Inspiration Point. One thing that was awe-inspiring besides the view was the fact that the overlook used to extend out another 100 feet from the edge until the night when it fell off into the canyon in 1975! We imagined we could feel the ground quiver under our feet so it didn't take us long to decide that we had been inspired enough.

Our final stop for the day was at Mammoth Hot Springs, a massive area where the mineral water had built up huge terraces of deposits. We could barely get out of the cars when we were swarmed by a group of tourists who jumped in front of Bill's car so they could get pictures of themselves with the car. We don't mind talking to people or answering questions and we don't mind them taking pictures but we are on vacation, too!

We started out of the park and were minutes from the town of Gardiner, MT, when the high meadow we had been driving through suddenly dropped away and we had a 7% grade downward for the last three miles. At the end, we drove through the original stone gates that used to mark the entrance to the park and settled into our motel exhausted but pleased with our day. We have one more full day in Yellowstone and then we leave for the Grand Tetons on Thursday.