Today we had a little late start but it was a much needed break in the morning. Right away in the morning we headed to the next door restaurant for breakfast the met up with our tour guide. Once we got loaded up in the bus we entered the park and made our way Mammoth. We were instantly greeted in mammoth by a young bull elk and a few cows. Our first speaker was Travis who talked to us about the elk management and Grizzly bear management. The presentation was close to the same that we had last year but I definitely learned some new information. It was cool to learn how about all of the factors that have went into the decline of elk but actually brought them back to the carrying capacity of the park.

After our talk with Travis we went towards Mammoth Hot Springs to learn about the geology of the area and what causes the terraces and how they are moving. While we were there Alex took a pH sample of the water which shocked us all with having a neutral pH of 7 while a sample that was taken in another stream that had the same acidity of battery acid which is a pH of 3. From the hot springs we went to lunch and made our way to the Artist Canyon. The hike to the canyon was a fun little walk through the trees to get an overlook of the canyon that the Yellowstone River has cut through in only 8,000 years. To end the night we had a mind boggling talk from Mike about the climate change that is happening over a long period of time and how the states downstream will be affected by the rapid snow melt.