Day 8 - Goodbye to Yellowstone

We started the day by checking out of the lovely TravelLodge in Gardiner, MT. We were lucky enough to be on the 4th floor overlooking the Park and the Roosevelt Arch. It was our last day in Yellowstone so we headed out East from Mammoth Springs to Tower Falls. We cruised along enjoying the scenery stopping at several overlooks including the Overlook for the Undine falls. As usual we saw some Bison but not much other wildlife. As we approached the entrance to the Petrified tree overlook we noticed that there were a lot more cars than could be justified by one rock-tree. Up on the hill strolling about the meadow was a grizzly bear! It was too far away to be more than a moving brown smudge on the hillside to the naked eye but fortunately we had binoculars. It was incredible! it was like a festival in that pull-out... everyone ooh'ing and ahh'ing. We could have spent all day watching him. That was a once in a lifetime moment. We finally moved on and went to Tower Falls. The overlook had a good view of the falls but there was a trail down to the bottom that we took. It was pretty steep but of course nothing to us veterans of QueensGarden/NavajoLoop trail at Bryce canyon. The sad news was that the trail to the base of the falls was closed almost at the bottom of the trail. We could have gone the rest of the way to the river but not to the falls so we just hiked back up. From there we took the road up and over Mount Washburn and started on our way out of the park. We said goodbye to Yellowstone at around 3:30 and headed East to Cody arriving at our hotel at 5 and here we are. Fourth of July fireworks should begin in downtown Cody at 10 tonight.