April 28th. Yellowstone National Park.

This was another box ticked on the bucket list. We were expecting to bypass Yellowstone on this trip because we had decided that most of the roads within the park were still closed and it was a long drive to side track down there. The same guy ( campground laundries are the best place for tourist information…LOL…!!) that recommended Drinking Horse also pointed out that Yellowstone in the summer time is mobbed. In the summer there are hundreds of people at Old Faithful…but this time of year there might be a handful. Also, the West gate and the road down to Old Faithful is open…..so…last minute as it was…we decided to go.

(Please note…that all the pictures are clickable if you have any desire to see them larger or more clearly…!!)

The drive south from Bozeman to the West Gate is quite beautiful in itself. The journey down did not hold back on the wildlife….we saw deer, sheep, wolves and bison……the bison were the only ones that were moving slow enough….and close enough to take recognizable pictures……

We got to the West gate just a little after 8am…excited….!!!!😆

So now we have another hour to drive to get to Old Faithful. But there’s lots of entertainment along the way. It was still early on a cool crisp but sunny morning so the warm waters of the river and various hot pools had a veil of mist rising.

…….then we came to a halt in a line of traffic. We slow crawled for about 40 minutes following a herd of bison up the road……it was wonderful…..!!!!

Yellowstone also started to introduce the idea that wildfires are not such a bad thing.

…and so the journey to the middle of the park continues….

Until we reached the visitor centre for Old Faithful ....

…..with lots of time to investigate the boardwalk around the various geysers and hot pools…..it’s an astonishing sight.

We keenly headed down the path towards Castle geyser as it was blowing some pretty impressive jets up in the air. I did not realise at the time it was not a constant display….we were just lucky to be there at the right time to get the display and the steam bath.

It’s a vast site, with boardwalks set up all around the vent holes and geysers. The walkways protect people from the potentially scalding and acidic crust, but more importantly, protect the bacterial mats from people. The mats create all the colours in and around the pools. It has to be seen to be believed. We have not retouched any of the pictures in this post. ( Editor. I used a polarising filter to cut the reflections on the surface, hence you can see the true colours below)

One of the cool parts of all of this…is the bison footprints through the mud, the bacterial mats and the edges of a lot of the pools. They come and go as they please..and seem to suffer no ill effects.!!

As time was winging on we made a last minute decision to go to the high lookout for Old Faithful 11.02 + or- 10 minutes…!!! We had just enough time to scoot up the, what turned out to be, snow covered path….!!!

We made it with a minute to spare if it was ten minutes early….but Old Faithful…..she was right on time at 11.02…!!

Forgive me but I’m still going to add a few more pictures from the boardwalks. It was just soooooo cool…!!

It’s a fascinating place. Its hard to imagine how it must have seemed to the first people that stumbled across it.

At the visitors centre the lovely staff warned us there would be snow after lunch. Conscious that we had a long drive back to the campground, on a road we did not know well enough to drive in the dark, we reluctantly set off back up the road. The mission on the return journey was to hit all the hot pool spots along the way.

The first one was Black Sand basin. We arrived there to find a couple of bison bulls grazing off to one side.

There was a lady walking the boardwalk and her hat blew off onto the mat…just out of reach…!!!

Again that last bright green photo has bison prints if you look closely.

The next stop was Biscuit basin

The sapphire pool was soooo blue …and so clear. You could stand and stare in to it all day….Well….I could…!!!

There was a hiking trail at the back of this basin…..and a big recently posted warning sign for bears….so we did not go there…!!

On our way back out of the parking lot, another fluffy cow came over to pose with a large crow..!!

Then Grand Prismatic Spring …..

Excelsior is the first pool/geyser…and it’s huge….those last two pictures are Excelsior.

At the Grand Prismatic spring……which is incredible..!! , there was a girl next to us who exclaimed that she thought it was so cool that we could only see glimpses of the deep blue colour of the pool. It gave you hints of how much more there was….a little bit of mystery and promise. I liked that perspective….!!!

The last set of pools was the Paint Pot springs.. Before we got there it started to snow. Great big flakes of snow covering the ground very quickly.. Bigger flakes than we have EVER seen anywhere else. How quickly the landscape changes….

Hard to imagine it’s the same day…!!!

Paint pots in the snow……Out in the distance there sounded like many geysers going strong but due to the cold air, plentiful steam and thick snow they remained only soundscapes.

The three paint pots are right next to each other and they are bubbling spluttering clay/mud. Each of them is a distinctly different colour. Grey, pink and caramel. The other pool at this site is the Celestial pool……which benefitted greatly from the addition of snowflakes…!!!

The snow was growing heavier by the minute so we made a dash for the truck to head home

Then, a little further up the road, all of a sudden, again lots of cars pulling off to the side. Cardinal sign that there’s something to see…..the bison herd were gathered in the high valley…in the snow. Picture perfect….!!!

….and then, slightly further down again….a lone cow with a new little copper calf passed right up by the side of us.

A truly magnificent sight to finish our first little visit to Yellowstone…..because….OF COURSE….we are coming back. ( Editor .Yellowstone was a revelation, I was ready for it to be one of the most incredible places we’ve been. That did not even come close and after a day of glorious sights to watch the bison travel up the valley in the snow was very moving.)

If you have not had enough yet….here are some extra pictures….

Extra Pix