Yellowstone 1




Thursday 2 June Only just made it to the restaurant for the free breakfast buffet which stops at 9am. Away by 10am and set off on the 89 towards Gardiner. Easy driving with not very much traffic. Noticeably colder today after the 80s of yesterday. We stopped at Emigrant to top up with petrol and look at the Yellowstone River. At this point Les put his sweatshirt on. Stopped at Gardiner for coffee and then to the NP centre before going into the park itself. Once in we drove to Mammoth Hot Springs where we bought stamps in the Post Office. Went into the Visitor Centre where we watched a short film about the history of NPs. Lunchtime now so we went into the self-service cafe and had fish sandwiches.

Drove up to the first of the springs and walked up on the boardwalk. Back to the car and drove to the upper terraces. The drive around the terraces was closed so we carried on along the road towards Norris. Saw some fairly spectacular views as we went up the valley but were a bit worried when the snow started, but it only lasted a few minutes. When we got to Norris we went to the geyser centre and did the walk around the Porcelain Basin. Walk was longer than anticipated as part of the path was closed and we had to take a diversion onto what looked like a brand new path.

Back in the car and carried on towards Madison and W Yellowstone. Lots of stops for picturesque views, the best ones being Gibbon Falls, and at one point for some bison crossing the river and the road.

Got to 3 Bear Lodge some time after 6pm. Checked in. Thank god the room was really warm - heating was on. Unpacked and had a quick walk to the supermarket passed a nice bistro and thought we might go back there at some stage. Went into the supermarket and bought beer, salad, fruit, etc with the idea of eating in the room but couldn’t find much for Les. Kept the bits and came back to the motel and decided we’d try to eat at the bistro. Walked back there (through the snow) but they were absolutely full and had nowhere for us to wait for a table. Instead we came back and ate in the motel restaurant. It was fine but although we refused the soup/salad we still couldn’t eat all our meals (Anne had Caesar salad with tuna and Les had tagliatelle alfredo with chicken). Back to the room to download photos and type up diary.