5:30 am does seem like cruel and unusual punishment. LOL. You would need a cistern full of coffee for this girl. But it does look like it was worth it.
You got some amazing animal sitings. Living in Canada, I have seen black bears on more than a few occasions. But I have never seen a grizzly, let alone a grizzly cub. I trust you were at a safe distance.
The hotsprings was beautiful, such a lovely color of blue. It is too hot to bathe in, I suppose.
So nice to see a family out and enjoying nature together. You are giving them such amazing experience and memories:):):)
Always worth getting up early, though never easy.
Yes, we were at a safe distance from all the bears. I had a 60-600mm lens so I can get photos of them from really far away.
The hot springs are way too hot to bathe in, you'd melt in seconds. It's also illegal to go off the catwalks because there are a lot of hidden geothermal pockets just below the surface that you could fall into and lose a leg, plus footprints ruin the scenery. Unfortunately there are a lot of people that ignore the rules. We saw several tourists walking on restricted areas and yelling at them didn't do any good.
Some people are rule averse:) The more you correct them. The more they are going to do it.