Day 30: Yellowstone National Park, WY

 It was a sleep-in morning. We woke up at 6:30 am, saw it was -4 degrees Celsius and rolled back over to sleep until 8 am. It was still chilly when we finally departed the campground, heading around the Great Loop to get to the Northwest part of the park. Our aim was to visit Mammoth Hot Springs. On the way, we stopped to check out some of the white capped mountains and the Calcite Springs Overlook. This overlook was unexpectedly gorgeous; truly a “I can’t believe that I am seeing this in real life” moment. We also saw some more animals including Seamus’ wolf (though no one saw it but him), Ian’s bear (really a bison upon a second look) and Alistair’s “circle with four legs” (we have no idea what he saw!). This animal confusion was in line with my “moose” sighting yesterday, which turns out was really an elk. I think we need to practice our animals.

Isn’t this gorgeous? The white rock near the river is steaming if you look closely.

Elk growing his antlers.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Mammoth Hot Springs. We really weren’t impressed with it the last time we visited here. However, after our visit today, I think this might be because we might have missed the most beautiful part, which is located on a side path connected to one of the parking lots but not the main loop trail. This “new” (to us) part was beautiful. The water was actively flowing over the existing formations and the colours were vibrant shades of rust contrasting with bright whites. The “old” part on the main loop remains underwhelming - dry, bleached, and crumbling. But the new part more than made up for it. We also saw two bull snakes. The first we had advanced warning for, while the second caught me completely by surprise slithering alongside the boardwalk about 6 inches from my shoes and disappearing into a tiny crack in the rocks. I jumped a least a foot. It was LONG and sneaky. The boys kindly assured me that while it would still bite me, it wasn’t poisonous. Super. That’s just great. Yuck.

See snake #1? Ugh.

Here is sneaky snake #2. Double ugh.

Bird sipping mineral water from the hot springs.

After our visit to the hot springs, we stopped for lunch at Sheepeater Cliff, which the boys immediately dubbed the “mini devils tower” due to its similar granite columns. Alistair climbed a bit but fell on his bum and decided that was his cue to quit. It was a lovely backdrop for our lunch of leftover chicken soup and homemade bread.

Can you spot Ali climbing? Look closely - he’s there!

Our afternoon was spent at a quick stop at Roaring Mountain (which frankly looked like the gateway to Hell) and then exploring the south rim of Yellowstone Grand Canyon, including a hike to Artist Point where we saw a park ranger painting the Lower Falls. I think I might be developing a fear of heights as I age. Or at least, a fear that the kids will horse-play themselves off a cliff. We had a strict no goofing around rule on this hike as we were a foot from the crumbling cliff edge at times. Happy to report that we all survived.

Roaring Mountain with its many steaming, sulphur-spewing vents.

Haha, not funny. We were WAY up!

It was hamburgers and salad for supper, hot/cold showers (keeps you on your toes!) and bedtime. Off to see the Grand Tetons tomorrow.

Day 29: Yellowstone National Park, WY

We all slept like babies and then cried like babies when we woke to close to 10cm of snow blanketing everything. While we seem to have returned to winter (which is not ideal), there is absolutely no doubt that it is beautiful here. 

After breaking out the toques and mittens, Lower Geyser Basin was our first stop of the day to see the hydrothermal fumaroles, hot springs, mudpots, and geysers. I think the blizzard kept the other visitors away; we had the boardwalk completely to ourselves. It was slippery on the snow covered plastic boardwalk but we loved seeing the colourful hot springs, especially the Morning Glory Spring. This particular spring has been the recipient of some significant clean up work over the years to remove coins, handkerchiefs and garbage that had clogged up the spring. It looks really beautiful now.

Morning glory spring.

We were incredibly lucky to happen across Rocket Geyser just as it erupted. This is not one of the reliably timed geysers so we were thrilled to be the only people around to witness its fizzing, sizzling, steaming and eventual 30 foot eruption. It was amazing.

Rocket geyser erupting.

We finished our hike in time to catch the 11:20am eruption of Old Faithful with the masses of other tourists who, by this time, had ventured out as the snow eased up. The boys were pretty damp by this point and the 15 minutes of sitting waiting for Old Faithful made them cold and grumpy. After the excitement of Rocket Geyser, they were unfortunately unimpressed with Old Faithful.

The anticipation…

Here we go!

Go Old Faithful!

After warming everyone up in the truck and feeding our hangry monsters, Ian and I were feeling up to visiting the Grand Prismatic Spring. Bribery might have been involved to get the boys on board (there is now hot chocolate in our future and I had to give up my mittens to Ali). We started at the Fairy Falls trailhead to hike to the Grand Prismatic Spring Scenic Overlook. It was an easy uphill with a great view of the spring and bacterial terraces.

Ali and Liam were not impressed enough to partake in the photo.

Next we joined the masses to walk around the Grand Prismatic Spring boardwalk. Ian and I remember the water being right up to the boardwalk the last time we visited here, which is no longer the case. Even so, we got some really excellent views and fabulous photos. The steam fogged up our glasses but didn’t smell too strong of sulphur, which was appreciated by all.

Steamy - can’t see!

All geysered out for today, we drove back to Fishing Bridge campground in another blizzard with temperatures still hovering right around the freezing point. We took hot showers and put on warm jammies, cranked the heat in the camper, made chicken soup in the instant pot, and brewed up mugs of hot chocolate. We are working on thawing out and warming up before bedtime. Here’s to hoping for a warm, sunny day tomorrow.