Day 2 - North Loop of the park

The first part of the day was 'ground hog day', except the temperature was hovering around 32 to 34 degrees F-32 degrees is 0 degrees C).

Had a grumpy ranger at the entrance, I asked what the weather expected was...she just answere 'I don't know I'm stuck in this booth". Great start.

We decided to head straight to Mammoth Hot Springs. Along the way we saw hearts of elk and buffalo. Just outside Mannoth we stopped at the thermal terraces- very impressive. More impressive than I expected. Spent a good bit of time walking around the boardwalks looking at the different terraces (with sinter and travertine deposits (Travertine are deposits of calcite (limestone deep beneath the surface is dissolved by the thermal water (and a weak sulphuric acid), then as the water evaporates on the surface the travertine is deposited.

 

Great model posing in front of a terrace.

Walking around the different silica terraces was a 'wee' struggle -there was a strong cold wind and plenty of snow flurries to content with. I need a coffee. Almost brought a black felt cowboy hat at the general store, in the end said 'no', when would I wear it. Also saw a 1970's VW camper charging trough the little town- a great sight.

Then it was 5 minutes down the road to Mammoth Hot Springs. This little township started life as an Army base. The US Army in the late 1880's were sent to sort out the poachers and miners, and to protect the national park. From them evolved the Park Rangers and their military uniforms. Great visitor centre, and most of the officer houses are still there and in use. More amazing was the number of elk grazing their lawns.

After a picnic lunch (it had stopped snowing and the sun was out, so we had our home made lunch (meat and a freshly baked French loaf (with a little cheese) and freshly purchased hot drinks (there was a general store open here).

Then it was back on the road again, heading to Tower Fall.

Our 'wee' car with the columnar basalt deposits in the background.

At this point of time it was close to 4.30 pm so, we decided to head back to West Yellowstone.

On the drive back we hit a small snow blizzard-snow flurries driven by very strong winds.

A shot through the front windscreen.

Stopped at Norris geyser field. Had a good walk around both the upper and lower boardwalks. By now there was no snow, sunny and just under 40 degrees F.

An example of the thermal pools at Norris.

On the drive back we saw herds of bison and elk grazing on the river flats. We drove a riverside loop and stumbled across a 3 legged elk, grazing beside the road.

Got back to our accommodation. Time to do a few household chores.

All 3 restaurants that were open last night are all closed. So we found a little bar/pizza parlour-that was tea for the night.

Tomorrow we leave the mountains and drop down to the high plains of Idaho. We are staying the night in Buhl, Idaho - a step back in time for us, as we lived there for 4 months in 1980 (September to December 26th).

Yellowstone has lived up to its reputation. A great place to visit, especially this time of the year. Very few cars to contend with. Yesterday we talked to a couple fro, Bozeman. They said in the height of summer you wait for up to an hour to get access to the features, with long lines of traffic. They also said it is not unusual to see bison standing in the hot pools during the height of winter. WE did see fresh dung and hoof prints around a number of the hot pools.

Sorry to say we saw no bears or wolves in the wild.