First day into Yellowstone park proper, weather was pleasantly sunny if a little on the cold side especially with a wind. Our first few miles into the park was punctuated by regular stops to look at the scenery and the Madison River winding its way through the valley to the west entrance. However, our first experience of wild life was a traffic jam caused by 2 bison who clearly were ‘kings of the road’, slowing all the vehicles down in both directions. It gave real emphasis to the ‘animals on the road’ signs and flashing warnings signs for Bison on road.
After passing Madison, we were into the geothermally active area along the Firehole River on the way to Old Faithful. The variety of hot springs and mud pools were simply amazing. The Fountain Paint pots were our first proper walk through and experience of these geological features and were quite engrossing. At the Midway Geyser basin we were treated to the Grand Prismatic Lake and a variety of springs cascading thousands of gallons of hot water into the Madison River. It did make you wonder what the first western explorers made of this area.
After a few more stops we arrived at the Old Faithful Geyser where we enjoyed a hot coffee and the 2 minutes eruption of the geyser itself. We were left a little disappointed as it wasn’t as spectacular as we had anticipated. I guess as a regular, every 90-minute, occurrence it was a ‘performance’ and the set up catered for that approach.
After lunch we headed off towards West Thumb taking in Kepler Cascades and driving into Craig Pass where we walked in the snow in a vain attempt to find wildlife. We did however cross the Great Continental Divide which represents the hydrogeologic divide between the Pacific the Atlantic. Geekish I know but hey! On the way back we stopped for yet another close encounter with bison and took some time spotting rather noisy elk in rut. Plenty more photos!