yellowstone and west yellowstone

buffalo bill dam

bison on route

me on fishing bridge

driving across fishing bridge

bison on the side of the road

lots of steam!

bear jam

bear in tree causing bear jam

deer and baby deer

mammoth hot springs

mammoth again, lower terrace

us at lower terrace

upper terraces

us at upper terrace

very bright blue bird at mammoth springs

boiling water

yellowstone beer

Wednesday 16th June

Our night in Cody was not too bad considering the room was probably of the poorest quality we have had and the most expensive. We got up and were on the road with around 80 kms to travel to the east gate of Yellowstone.

Along the way we stopped off at the Buffalo Bill Dam to have a look. This dam supplies electricity to Cody and the surrounding area. On we went to the east gate of Yellowstone and paid the entrance fee. The first stop was going to be Fishing Bridge which crossed the Yellowstone River and was a place that people would stand and fish from for trout many years ago. It is now banned to fish from the bridge. We made it to Grand Loop Road and decided we would do the northern loop taking us to Mammoth Hot Springs in and anti clockwise direction to West Yellowstone, where we were staying the night. As we entered the Grand Loop Road there was a Bison standing on the side of the road. We drove past very carefully as we did not want him to hit the car.

We made our way past many sites including the Mud Volcano boiling mud pits, thermal pools and canyons with the Yellowstone River flowing through them. We stopped for lunch at Canyon Village and got some cheese and crackers for lunch from the supermarket. We kept going until we got to Mammoth Springs and then we walked around the upper and the lower terraces. It is really a kind of eerie feeling as there is steam going everywhere and hot water pours down the side of the hill leaving calcium deposits behind. When the calcium is yellow and orange it means the hot water is keeping the bacteria alive. Where there is white and grey areas it means the water has cooled or stopped all together. We spent about 2 hours here having a look around and it was really fascinating.

We then drove towards West Yellowstone and had a couple of 'bear jams' on the way. This is not something you put on your toast, it is when people see a bear in trees on the side of the road and they stop to take photos. Everyone then lines up behind to get their photo. Next minute there is 50 or more cars and half and hour pasts and you have hardly moved. It took us until about 8.00pm to get there and we only had gone 200 kms for the day. We went out for dinner at a restaurant just down the street from the motel. We had a really nice pizza and I had a Yellowstone beer. Back to the room then as we wanted to get to bed so we could get up and see the rest of Yellowstone and Old Faithful tomorrow. The weather was also meant to be changing as it had gotten very cold.