Vacation Day 4 (Gardiner, MT to Billings, Montana)

Barbara had an unwelcome guest for breakfast.

 Today, after a good breakfast at our Comfort Inn, we made the short run back into Yellowstone Park to see Mammoth Hot Springs, which we drove past yesterday.  To get back into the park we had to pass under the Teddy Roosevelt Arch which was built in 1903 in Gardiner, Montana, at the main entrance into Yellowstone in those days.  Mammoth Hot Springs which are composed of mineral deposits that form pancake like formations that the springs run across.  It wasn’t very spectacular this time as most of the water has died up leaving the formation with the look of a wasteland.

 On the way back to Gardiner we did stop at a sign that sits right at the 45^th parallel making it exactly the same distance from the North Pole as the equator. 
 

 On the road to Livingston, Montana we actually saw several small herds of buffalo.

 At Livingston we visited the local Yellowstone Gateway Museum.  It was a very nice community museum.  It had a lot of history displays of the park, Lewis and Clark, Indians and pioneers.  We had a fun hour just going through the exibits and taking pictures of the things there.  After eating lunch and gassing up the car, we headed eastward towards Billings.
 Bob pushing an ore bucket like his grandfather would have used in a gold mine.

 Once a teacher - always a teacher.  Barbara is the school marm of the old one-room school house of the 1800's.

 We stopped along the way at a little state park called Graycliff Prairie Dog town.  There wasn’t much there but interpretative signs and a small prairie dog colony.  It was nice to see prairie dogs in their native environment rather than just at a zoo. 
 

We got into Billings at 4 PM and could have done a little more tourist activities but we opted to do laundry.  Barbara would have preferred doing it on Saturdays but I fear we will be later getting into our destination tomorrow.