Woke up early this morning with the plan being to get to the park early to see much more than yesterday. So after quickish showers it was off, we grabbed a take-away coffee and were outside the North Entrance gate at 8:12 am! We took the obligatory photos and then moved through the entrance and onto the toll booth, where again our Annual Pass saved us another $25.

Into the park it was only 9 degrees and so we headed up to Mammoth Hot Springs to walk the lower walks having driven the top ones the night before. We saw no animals of note on the way up to the springs. Out of Clancy, winter wear back on, we proceeded to follow the marked trails through the hot springs, geysers and mud.

The path follows a winding trail through the various hot springs and geysers, disappointingly many no longer were flowing. Interestingly the park sign suggest that this is a natural phenomenon with these types of hot springs. The ones that had stopped flowing certainly would have been majestic in their day, because they were still awesome in their current state.

Some of the pools showed the intervention of visitors that could have ruined the displays for all. There was also the occasional clothing item that I am sure the wearer did not intend to deposit in the springs for eternity. The sticks, stones and branches certainly were not all there from the actions of the weather. Even with signs warning visitors of the temperature of the spring water, mostly above 50degrees C, we saw more than on person attempt to put their hand in the water. None of them thankfully were stupid enough to do it, I guess the heat from the steam was enough to suggest that touching was not going to end well.

So after nearly two hours of traversing the upper and lower springs we headed back to Clancy, who when we left was alone in the carpark, now the carparks were nearly full. I have no idea what this place would be like in the middle of summer and if today was to be an indication I am not sure I would want to be here. So we jumped in grabbed another coffee. Here we are again, not having a lot of luck in the coffee department, this was probably the best so far which is not saying much - I really need to go shopping and buy some coffee.

We then proceeded to retrace the last part of last night's journey this time in sunshine with a temperature of 14, as we neared the top of the springs there were cars everywhere and people milling about a sure sign that there was wildlife to be seen. We asked one of the keen observers what was the action and were told there is elk in the trees. Shoeleh was having battery issues and so I parked Clancy and head off to see our first lot of elk. They were in the trees, I think a little spooked from all the people! So I proceeded to follow the road before heading into the trees to get a look. At last I saw an Elk with antlers, being annoyed with some of the people chasing them, so having seen the elk I decided to let them be and headed back to Clancy.

Up the hill taking time to notice the effects of the 1998 fires and the regrowth that has happened since then. Next we crossed the Yellowstone's' golden gate bridge, how many items have the same name! From here it was onward toward Norris. Along the way we turned off to Sheepeater Cliff, now I had visions of a large cliff where wolves chased sheep to their demise, named after the Native Indian tribe that ate a lot of sheep. The cliff face however was quite spectacular in its own right.

We then headed off with the idea of lunch at Norris. On the way there was a lake and big sign suggesting here is the place to see Moose. Well, all we saw were Bison!!! So back in the car and travelling further.

We made it to the Norris Geysers and proceeded to walk around many of them on the provided pathways. Amazingly each geyser was very different with the pools associated with them having different colours based on the minerals and algae present.

After leaving the Norris Geysers we encountered a coyote causing a traffic jam and a crane being totally ignored before we made our way to the Artists Paintpot which was an amazing set of geysers and mudpots in all sorts of colours

Finally after we had seen most of the geysers in this part of the park we headed off with the idea of staying in West Yellowstone this evening. The journey took us past Gibbon Falls which we stopped and did a bit of a walk around then it was on the road to the West Yellowstone exit.

Before we made it we encountered a huge traffic jam, not sure what it was all about we find that an Stag Elk with some of his harem was hanging around here. So we parked jumped out and spent a good deal of time taking photos of a majestic beast with the full antlers just pretty much amazed at all the fuss around him.

Leaving here we drove a bit further down the road to find more Elk with photographers waiting for the moose to appear. Again back in the car for a little bit more Elk again and so we stopped and took more photos.

Finally without spotting any more elk and definitely no moose we made it to Yellowstone Grizzly RV Parkhttp://www.grizzlyrv.com/ and Cabins is located in West Yellowstone, Montana, just four blocks from the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

Animals Spotted: Coyote & Elks!!!, Heron Bison, birds, ravens, squirrels