Day 9

More Yellowstone - where are the bears?

We didn't sleep very well, what with having to share a bed! Paul was OK, as he had a bed to himself!

There had been a storm in the night and there was a lot of rainwater still on the ground, but the skies had cleared. When I went outside for a cigarette, I sat next to an American chap who asked me if I'd seen any bears. "Nope". He informed me that he'd seen a grizzly with cubs. "Any buffalo?" "Nope". "But they're everywhere". I felt very inferior!!

So, the park beckoned - and we would surely see a bear today? We went, firstly, to Middle Geyser Basin and followed the walkway to the most magnificent Grand Prismatic Spring - sensational colours.

watch you don't fall in! :)







this is a panorma I did out of the last three photos - it's, frankly, rubbish!

Saw another coyote! And some more deer/elk!

Then we took a drive up to the crossroads near to Norris and exited the park at the east entrance at West Yellowstone. The idea was to see the bears in the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center there, just in case we didn't manage to see any in the wild (which we surely would?) They were cool; the bears - and so were the wolves (though awfully scraggly).

After this, we went into the McDonalds and had to wait an eternity for our buns, as the staff was all new and couldn't quite understand anything or quite understand what they were meant to be doing. This resulted in a rather fed up looking queue of hungry people! Outside I saw huge black bugs, like spiders - but flying ones - what on earth they were I wasn't really wanting to find out - but hope to goodness that I wouldn't see another!

Back inside the park, and on the way to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the skies opened up with hail (no, ICE) the size of golf balls - we were really scared that it would break the car windscreen! We stopped at several viewpoints around the Canyon. It was very beautiful up there. We had travelled here at exactly the right time of year. The waterfalls were in full flow, because the snow was still melting and the days were long.

From the Canyon, we drove to the Hayden Valley (lovely green pastures) and then to Sulphur Caldron (poo!) and the Mud Volcano.

We decided that we *just* had enough time to check out Grand Teton National Park, so we drove down there for a peep - more beauty - it was all getting a bit much! We stopped off at Flagg Ranch for coffee and a little shopping, before driving back to Old Faithful. Paul bought a buffalo hat ......

We tried to get into the Obsidian Restaurant for dinner, but were told that it was at least an hour's wait. We were starving! Why on earth wouldn't they allow people to make reservations?? We ended up going to the shops for rolls, buns and bits! Here we also did some souvenir/gift shopping, before returning to our room.

When we went outside, there was quite a light show going on - all across the horizon, fork lightning upon sheet lightning and the wind howled something awful. It scared me nearly witless and I was much happier in the room, with the shutters closed!!

We hadn't seen nearly all of Yellowstone - but we had seen enough for us to appreciate the diversity and magic of the park. We had seen no bears in the wild, but we had seen a couple of coyote, lots of bison, a marmot (we think) down by Sulphur Caldron, lots of elk and deer, chipmunks, squirrels and a beaver (we think) down by the river. Magic indeed!

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[ Introduction ] [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Day 4 ] [ Day 5 ] [ Day 6 ] [ Day 7 ] [ Day 8 ] [ Day 9 ]
[ Day 10 ] [ Day 11 ] [ Day 12 ] [ Day 13 ] [ Day 14 ] [ Day 15 ] [ Day 16 ] [ Day 17 ]
[ Day 18 ] [ Day 19 ] [ Day 20 ] [ Day 21 ]

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