rambling to Yellowstone

It's overcast with a forecast of rain as we leave Salt Lake City - and the promised precipitation catches us as we pass through Logan Canyon and into Idaho. So far we have been in 5 states - California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Idaho. We will pass through three more on this trip, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado.

Just into Idaho we pass through a little reminder of France - the towns of Paris and Montpellier - quite different scenery and housing to their namesakes though. We're following the famous Oregon trail that the pioneers travelled in wagon trains. The snake river winds around through the mountains and is popular for rafting adventures in the warmer months. Heading for Jackson - famous for its skifields at Jackson Hole and the Grand Teton National Park. We will pass through this park rather than exploring it, as we're trying to make the most of Yellowstone.

Afton has a huge gateway across the road made of antlers all linked together - and two bucks on top head to head - impressive but a little wierd...

We stopped at Jackson for ffod and fuel - it looks to be an interesting town and it's tempting to take up the offered rafting on the snake river trips, but we keep travelling.

As we get close to Yellowstone we see evidence of the huge fires of 1988 - the pine forest is growing back thick and healthy but some of the tall burnt trunks still stand high above the new growth.

Stopped at Lewis Falls and Lewis Lake. I am amazed at the amount of snow still on the ground here and the lake is frozen out a long way with a thick crust at the edge of glass-clear ice.

Funny, but my knowledge of Yellowstone NP are based on yogi bear and the 'pickernick basket... well, not really, but I hadn't realised just how active this area is, with hundreds of Geysers, thermal pools, vents etc.

West Thumb Basin was our next stop with many active thermal pools in unique colours (see one of the top photos). This is the one part of Yellowstone Lake that does not freeze over in winter and we can see why, with obvious warm water all along the edges. Seems the waterbirds like it too as we saw some goldeneye ducks diving for food where the warm water was bubbling up.
We went to 'Old Faithful' a large and active geyser whose erruptions can be predicted at about 90 minutes apart and sure enough, about 99 minutes from the last time, there was another erruption. That's the other photo at the top of this post. Afterwards we walked the boardwalks around the very active thermal basin watching smaller geysers and looking at the formations caused by the mud and waters over the years.

Heading for our hotel near the west entrance of the park we come across small herds of shaggy bison with their golden coloured babies nearby. Then some mule deer, a coyote and luckily - a bear, walking up through the scrub from the river and stopping traffic rather effectively as he (or she) crossed the road and disappeared into the forest on the other side. Spotted some eagles' nests near the river and a sign saying not to stop in the protection zone for the bald eagles. Would love to see one of them, but figure we are doing well, with a bear sighting on our first day.

Exhausted by the time we get to the hotel, so check in and then pick up a wild west takeaway pizza and salad and have a drink in the bar while we are waiting.