Friday 3 June

Slept until nearly 8am. Breakfasted in room on fruit we’d bought yesterday. Checked email and Anne managed to speak briefly to Karen on Skype.

It was barely above freezing as we set off back into the park back along yesterday’s road to Madison Junction and then south down the Firehole River towards Old Faithful. Stopped and photographed bald eagles immediately south of Madison.

Turned off down the Firehole Canyon Drive stopping for photos at various points but mainly at Firehole Falls where we also saw lots of Chipmunks.

Carried on with a turn off at Fountain Flat Drive where we saw an osprey but couldn’t get a photo.

Continued down past lots of scenic spots until we finally got to Old Faithful. We decided to go to the Visitor Centre to see if we could find out about timings and found it was due to go off in 10 mins. Also found that Visitor Centre is the closest place you can park to the geyser. Much closer than the signed car parks. After watching it go off roughly on time we went back in and spent some time looking at the displays and watching a short video.

We then walked across to the restaurant which was really crowded. We got served reasonably quickly and found a seat and by the time we’d finished eating the queues had disappeared and all the seats were empty.

Carried on again round towards West Thumb. Stopped at the Keppler Cascades for lots of photos. As we approached West Thumb we realised that Yellowstone Lake was completely frozen apart from a few small bits kept open by thermal activity. Stopped at West Thumb geyser basin and did the walk around the geysers and along the lake shore.

Drove up side of the lake towards Lake Village with a few odd stops for photos. Went into Lake Village to see what it was like as we think Ian and Sheila stayed there. Stopped at General Store for a cup of tea at the soda fountain! Les also had ice cream.

From Lake Village we followed the Yellowstone River out of the Lake towards Canyon Village. Didn’t stop much on the way but turned off to Upper and Lower Falls to see the falls and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Saw the Upper Falls but didn’t fancy the long steep walk to Lower Falls. Also went out along the North Rim and stopped at Grand View. Lots of paths from these places are closed and virtually the whole day’s driving up to now from Madison to Canyon Village had been on roads lined with snow and which looked as though they were only open because they’d been ploughed.

This southern bit seems to have far more snow than the northern bit that we came through yesterday. From Canyon Village we started heading back west. Didn’t make many stops between Canyon Village and Norris and none after Norris as we were back on the road we travelled yesterday.

Lots of bison everywhere but still no bears or wolves.

Back in W Yellowstone just after 6pm and went straight to supermarket. Bought hot chicken for Les and frozen lasagne for Anne (microwave in room). Straight back to motel and ate dinner as soon as we’d sorted ourselves out. A nice change from restaurants.

Wrote some postcards, downloaded photos and wrote this.