Day5-May 17, 2017- Tour of Yellowstone National Park

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We've been using walkie talkies provided by Tom to communicate among our caravan of three while on the road. Yesterday when we got to West Yellowstone I forgot to turn off the Walkie Talkie. At 3:45am we were awoken by a beep/beep/beep...I thought it was a carbon monoxide detector or smoke detector alarm. I finally determined it was the walkie talkie and "battery low" alarm, so good night's sleep was ruined. Awoke at 5:45am (body clock time) to 28deg & rain. Started chores for the morning to fill the water tank after borrowing Ray's hose because mine had frozen with leftover water from last fill (newbie now knows to drain hose after each fill...duh) amd black/gray water dump. Picked up complimentary cappuchinos at Grizzly RV Park where we are staying and paid bill for 2 day stay as we had come in too late to register last night. Our tour guide for the day in Yellowstone arrived promptly at 9 a.m.to pick up Ray & Sandy, John & Diane, Sue & Al and Dorrie & I...Peggy & Tom decided not to go as they had been to Yellowstone before. Laura our guide from Yellowstone Scenic Tours turned out to be a great guide despite the fact that she & her partner just started the business...kudos toe Sandy for the selection. Even with the cold day and predicted snow we waited in line for about 20mins. to get in the park...during peak season Laura said the wait time can be as much as an hour to get in. Our choices of routes within the Park were restricted due to collapse of section of roadway easterly...thankfully we had come through the park yesterday to our destination or otherwise we wouldn't have made it. Yellowstone wildlife includes bison (buffalo), elk, grizzly & black bears, wolves deer, and bighorn sheep and we saw many of them on our tour today. We learned from Laura that it was Ulysses Grant in 1872 who established Yellowstone and not Teddy Roosevelt.

It was an especially pleasant day for me to be able to sit back and have someone do the driving while I got a chance to enjoy the scenery. There had been some light snowfall overnight which spread its white blanket over the landscape making it particularly beautiful. For most of the 8 hour tour the weather although in the 30s was otherwise clear and snow free. We visited several of the park's geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, and mudpots and received a geology lesson from Laura as to the causes for the phenomena we were seeing. Rugged mountains flank the park's plateau. The highlight of the day was to see a group of 4 wolves "dancing" (actually playing) along a river in the park. The pictures tell the story. I must provide attribution for some of the pictures you see to Ray (aka Ansel) as I had a problem with my SLR and was restricted to using my iPhone. We were supposed to have the lunch Laura prepared for us in a hotel in Mammouth Hot Springs but it was under construction repairs so we ate in the van. Toward the end of the tour, snow started to accumulate on the roadway but was no problem for us.

We got back to camp around 5pm and at 6 pm headed out for dinner at Three Bear restaurant. At the end of the evening we said "goodnight, goodbye, & good travels" to Ray & Sandy, Diane & John our new best friends for part of this adventure. They are heading for a further westerly route to Alaska while we'll be traveling east of the Rockies for most of the way. We hope to rendezvous again with them in Homer, AK toward the end of May.

Once again, I find myself up too late in finishing this post and I still have to attach the photos! I've got to figure out some way to either start sooner or shorten the blog. We head for Great Falls, MT tomorrow and then on to Banff, Alberta on Friday.

p.s. Problem uploading all pics, so will have to add later.

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