It was a couple of long drives up to Yellowstone, the first of which took us up as far as Brigham City - just past Salt Lake City - where we stayed for two nights and did very little! One of the nights we ate in a proper diner and had huge dinners followed by a pudding (for 99c) big enough for all 4 of us which I ended up eating most of!!

We had to cancel our campsite at Yellowstone because of Sams poorly ankle - we didn't think it was wise to make her crawl in and out of a tent! We managed to find a good hotel that cost us more than usual where we stayed for 4 nights. We also managed to rent a wheelchair for Sam so I could take some of her pain and she could see a lot more. Without this, Yellowstone would not have been nearly as enjoyable for Sam.

Yellowstone is a volcanic region with an abundance of thermal activity similar in both looks and smell to Rotorua in New Zealand! There are many thermal pools - unfortunately not for bathing - with easy access boardwalks (wheelchair accessible!). Some of these are extremely colourful such as the grand prismatic spring that was filled with deep blues merging into turquoise and eventually red and orange. There are many bubbling mud pools too on a larger scale than Rotorua.

One of Yellowstones highlights are the geysers. There are many unpredictable spurts all over the place as well as the 'old faithful' that operates like clockwork every 90 minutes and shoots up water about 130ft! We spent much of our time exploring the various interesting thermal regions but that's not all that resides in Yellowstone.

Buffalo, or bison, are among the many animals that like to call the park 'home'. Hundreds of buffalo roam freely and cause traffic problems and they are huge animals. I certainly wouldn't want one of those stepping out in front of the car - which they have a tendancy to do! Other animals we saw were deer, the odd moose, elk, a wolf, a bald eagle, pronghorned deer, a white fox and, on a walk the 3 able bodies did, a snake! There are many bears but we weren't lucky enough to spot any.

Theres a beautiful canyon that begins with a waterfall and flows way down below the view point, meandering through coloured cliffs.

Driving through the many meadows and valleys, spotting wildlife, is another of the fantastic ways to appreciate the park and theres so much of it to see. The figure of 8 loop totals 142 miles and we covered much of the sights over the 3 days we had. We would get up and out by around 9am and return back around 8:30pm after staying in the park to cook at a picnic spot.

Yet another beautiful attraction is Yellowstone lake. We drove up to a viewpoint 1000ft above then descended for a relaxing lunch break lakeside with stunning snowy mountains as a backdrop.

Yellowstone is truly one of the most remarkable places. Endless beauty to be enjoyed in harmony with plentiful wildlife.