Yellowstone in Winter - Post 3

 The first afternoon was spent xc skiing. After we went a ways, we needed to stop since there were bison on the trail! I'm glad we didn't get as close as the guy in the middle of the picture...

 ... this was close enough! The bison left the trail, but they were still close by when we skied past.

 Our destination was to a geyser/spring that our bus driver told us about. It was really interesting. (Blacksand Pool)

Every so often, you could actually feel "booms" through the earth, which would be followed with the spring bubbling.

 Not only was it a booming pool, but it was pretty, too :)

 We decided to just go hiking the second day. We took the observation point trail(?) to the solitary geyser. I was the first to spot the above bison, which of course, was conveniently on the trail... everyone else though it was a rock at first!

 Unlike the bison the day before, this one did not show any interest in leaving the trail.

We were able to get a good rest in before we decided to go off trail up and around the blockage. We passed the bison with no incident!

 The Solitary Geyser. It would supposedly go off every five minutes with a spout a few feet in the air. We never did see it shoot up, but we did see plenty of bubbles!

We choose to make the loop instead of going back past the lone bison :)

So, that's all for the posts on Yellowstone. It definitely is worth a trip during the winter... fewer people and yet the scenery is still gorgeous!

Yellowstone Post #1
Yellowstone Post #2

Yellowstone in Winter... 2nd Post

In order to enter the park during the winter season, you either have to be on a snowmobile or your have to pay to ride a snowbus. 

Our snowbus was scheduled to leave West Yellowstone in the morning (we stayed there the night before). However, as we were starting to pack up (we had to drive about 4 blocks to where the snowbus was going to meet us), Grizz locked the keys inside the vehicle... while it was running! Thankfully, there was a repair shop next to our hotel, and Grizz was able to borrow a screwdriver and a flexible metal rod to break into our vehicle. Long story short, we still made it to the snowbus before it was scheduled to leave!

 Our snowbus was pretty much just a Chevy Suburban with four triangular treads instead of wheels. It was a full vehicle (11 people) for the two hour drive to Old Faithful, but it was nice to see the scenery and wildlife without worrying about the roads.

 We spent that afternoon cross-country skiing. Neighbor had never xc-skied before and it had been awhile since her fiance had tried it, so it was fun helping them learn. There were a lot of trails around Old Faithful for us to explore!

Thankfully, Scooter didn't slow me down too much... here's a 28 week bump picture :)

Yellowstone Post #1
Yellowstone Post #3

Last Winter Excursion

 It snowed at the end of last week...

 ... so we decided to head over to some mountains...

 ...and XC Ski.

 We tried going on one trail...

 ... but then a stream popped up and was in the way (I didn't want to cross it... Grizz would have been all for it!)

 Thus, Grizz was sad. But, we went a different direction, on a different trail...

... and we reached some rough patches, so we took of the skis and hiked a bit.

 We sat on a log at the top of a hill and drank hot chocolate. Grizz also tried to light a "fire" - he got smoke, but no flame.


Then we returned home. The snow is now gone, and its 70 degrees out today. We might just get another spring snow storm, but this could possibly be our last winter excursion for the season. It's hard to tell with our crazy MT weather!

Yay SPRING!