Yellowstone

Wow, just wow.

Yellowstone is enormous, and filled with volcanic activity.  Geysers, mud pools, hot springs, and everything is changing all the time, not static, so last week, there may not have been a hot spring here, and today there is!

Over the 2 days we were there we saw many things.

The vistas of forests with random steam vents coming through were a little unreal.

Mammoth Hot Springs. Beautiful hot springs with layers and layers of multi-coloured pools and formations

The 'Grand Canyon' of Yellowstone.  Very deep and steep with a magnificent torrent running through it.

Old Faithful, which was faithfully right on time about 90 minutes after the last eruption, though only lasted a minute or so.  Many, many people were there to watch, including some very opinionated yanks who were sure that putting a turbine into old faithful would provide lots of power.

The Artist's Paint Pot. A pretty collection of vari-coloured mud pools laid out like an artist's palette.

Dragon's Breath spring. Very aptly named. The steam is constant, and the spring itself belches out in waves.

Grand Prismatic, which must be one of the most iconic of Yellowstone attractions. Better seen from far away rather than right up close.

And many more interesting geo-thermal features.  Way too many to post here, but there are pics in the photo album.

We camped overnight in Yellowstone for 2 nights. It was bitterly cold both mornings with the poles on the tents being frosty and the condensation on the inside freezing as soon as we started taking the tents down. We took turns with camp chores (cooking, washing, cleaning the bus). Nights round the campfire were fun though, toasting s'mores and drinking and chatting and an occasional sing-song.  Food at the camps was good too, with Ryan, our guide, doing an excellent job of feeding us tasty hot food.

Wildlife-wise we saw a good variety, though unfortunately no grizzly bears! :(

Elk at Mammoth Springs, buffalo and white tailed deer scattered around, chipmunks variously, american robins and a Red Crossbill at the campsite and a Clark's Nutcracker in the Grand Canyon.

Glacier National Park

After Mt Rainier we had almost 2 days in the bus heading north for Glacier National Park. We stopped off at Wallace, Idaho, officially declared (by the Mayor) as the Centre of the Universe. Noone told them they couldn't, so they now have signs up about it. Nice little town for an overnight.  Had Huckleberry Margaritas (well, it was my birthday). As it was my birthday I did buy donuts for everyone, unfortunately there are 13 of us and they came in packs of 12, so I had to buy 2 packs. "Would anyone like a donut?" (as I try to get rid of them all) has become a group saying.

Got to Glacier National Park at about 4:45pm, and discovered that it shut at 5, not 6 as we thought. We also found that the shuttle bus service to Logan Pass was extremely limited as it had only just reopened after the recent fires there. We had to get tickets tomorrow, and there were only 200 tickets being given out.  So, the plan was to get, breakfast and make packed lunches to get to the bus ticket place for 7:30am.

We got to the campsite and got set up. Had a lovely burger and sausage dinner (curtesy of Ryan), and then a nice camp fire with some singing, games and s'mores.  Overnight it was very cold.  My sleeping bag was only just good enough, but I survived.  Up at 6 in the dark to get going, very cold, but it was worth it as we got there and got tickets.  We would only have 2 hours up at the pass because of the limited service, so after a very scenic hours' bus ride we got to the top and found ourselves in freezing cloud. It was a very fast paced hike to try to get to the Hidden Lake, but we got there and managed to get beyond the cloud and get some views.

Back down on the bus again, and then a walk for some by the McDonnald lake/lodge. I was knackered, I don;t know if it was the pace we set, or the altitude (over 6000 feet up at the top), but I stayed by the lake and had a snooze.