YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8-9-11

It's 8:15 AM and we're headed to Mammoth Springs at the northern entrance of the park.  It's probably going to take us a while to get there so we are prepared to stay - two days of drinks and food.  A cup of coffee costs $2.30 so we got ice and have a dozen drinks in the cooler.  At Mammoth we were greeted by 15 female and young male elk, just enjoying the grass around the visitor's center.  The area was an Army compound from 1886-1918 when the Army administered the park.  Our elk greeters were totally unaffected by all of us and when we left at 3:00 PM they were still there.  We were unable to get a hotel room in Gardiner, situated at the park entrance five miles from Mammoth, but...hooray, we got a room at the Mammoth Springs Hotel, yet another of the park's historic buildings.  On the way back to Fishing Bridge we walked the Mud Volcano Trail, one of the hydrothermal areas of the park.