Still Yellowstone

The following day we moved to the south of the park driving alongside the steaming Yellowstone river and through Hayden Valley.

We stopped to see the Sulphur Canyon and Mud Volcano.

Giant hand?

Yellowstone Lake

Old van gets a rest

We drove on to Old Faithful and waited with the crowds for it to erupt.  We were a little early for the next predicted eruption so we listened to a ranger talk about bears and bear safety while it was just bubbling away quietly and waited for the eruption.  We then went to the Old Faithful Inn for bison burgers and huckleberry lemonade.

After lunch we did the short hike to Mystic Falls and visited the Grand Prismatic Spring.

Mystic Falls

Grand Prismatic Spring

Getting back down the hill....

More bison

We drove to Grant Village campsite at 5pm and it had just filled up. Luckily we had a reservation again.  It's a good thing I had all that time to plan while I was saving up in Perth.

Someone's still hungry...!

Evening walk near the campsite

More from Yellowstone

Our second day in Yellowstone started out with the hike to the top of Mount Washburn. We got some free bear spray in the trailhead car park from a couple who were leaving and didn't need it any more. We had asked at the info centre the day before and the ranger said we wouldn't need bear spray for this hike but, as it was free, we thought it wouldn't hurt. We still took all our usual singing and noise making precautions.

Getting some warmth!

It was another sunny day and we actually got warm hiking up. The summit was very cold though. We had a rest and ate our sandwiches in the watchtower there which was nice and warm.

Yellow - stone

Ros at the top of the watchtower

We returned to camp and cooked a mountain of pasta and then walked to the ice cream shop and followed it with giant ice creams.  We had forgotten we were in the USA and that when you ask for a large, you get LARGE!  (We ate them all).

In the afternoon we drove to the Norris Geyser Basin and did the two short trails there.

Getting a sulphur steam