I have Ciela to thank for the suggestion that we sleep in on Saturday morning. We had been up every day for school before the sun rose, so she wanted to sleep well one night in the hotel. I really had not considered it because I wanted to get a full day in at Yellowstone since they didn’t have school. Then realized she was right.

Mama slept in until 8:45am central time- virtually unheard of for me.

Ciela studied for her math and social studies test while we did some laundry and then walked the town. We were dragging our feet to leave because we love Bozeman.

We hit our favorite store- Heyday-

I got groceries at the CoOp and we loaded and left. Drove down 191 through Big sky- and boy did we see blue skies…

Checked into Holiday Inn, the nicest hotel I could find in West Yellowstone because we needed to test the WiFi for school the following week. Our intention was to stay in RV camp the rest of the week and just drive to the parking lot of the holiday inn and use their WiFi. Sadly- we quickly learned that their WiFi was also terrible and no chance virtual schooling was going to happen from there.

We ditched the RV and drove the rental minivan into Yellowstone early afternoon.

We watched trout swim UPstream-

Then hit the geisers. At Fountain Paint Pot Trailhead- we saw hot springs, geisers and fumaroles (smoking holes in the ground.)

At the black sand basin we got to see more color. The ground is actually a very thin crust in areas- with boiling water below… so you have to stay on the walking path.

We timed our visit to Old Faithful perfectly but entirely by accident- arriving minutes before it was set to go off. And true to its name- it did right on schedule.

The photos don’t do it justice but it erupts 10-180 feet high.

We ended our Yellowstone afternoon with Grand Prismatic- which was our favorite hot spring however we were limited at seeing its full splendor because it was so cold outside that the ground was obscured by the fog that was generated.

Hard to imagine finding all the bison tracks in the area. Not clear how they don’t feel the heat or how they don’t crack through the thin areas.

We spotted a herd of elk in the distance. One bull and many females as to be expected.

We heard our first bugling by the bull elk.

Sky on fire on the drive back to west Yellowstone.