The road into Mammoth Hot Springs drops precipitously as it goes through Golden Gate Canyon.

The vertical walls of the canyon did not allow conventional road building — so the engineers designed a trestle and put the road on it.

The first trestle was wood, imagine that. I’m glad the current trestle is of concrete.

Canary Spring is in the Upper Terrace of Mammoth Hot Springs. It’s a long walk down on the boardwalk (a hiker coming up told me he counted 200 steps), but worth the effort.

Elk invaded Gardiner last night. A small herd left their usual summer pastures in the high mountains to walk down the main street.

They were grazing on lawns and eating fresh leaves from the bushes. The locals were unfazed. The next morning the elk were gone, probably back to the mountains where the grass is greener.

The Shoshone word for elk is wapiti, which translates to “one with a white rump.” Very appropriate.

Carto