Last night was cold. By 10am this morning the temperature was up to 24F so last night it was definitely in the mid teens. I’ll have to remember to put on a second pair of socks on nights like that, actually a second pair of everything. It had stopped snowing by 8pm the night before but the rain that fell most of the day yesterday froze on the roads once the temperature dropped below freezing so even though it was snowing hard, the roads were mostly impassable due to the ice. There were no grizzly sightings during the night and I didn’t see any tracks either. I have to say I was kind of hoping to see one.
The plows came on time and cleared the roads but only the top snow layer, leaving the ice behind. I drove a loop starting at Grant Village and worked my way counter clockwise around to Old Faithful. It was only 79 miles but it took a long time because I wasn’t driving more than 20mph until the ice cleared.
Yellowstone is a fascinating place. For starters, it’s one of the world’s largest volcanoes. The central portion of the park is an immense depression formed from an eruption 640,000 years ago. This event was estimate to be 1,000 times more forceful than Mount St. Helens and it left behind a crater, also known as a Caldera, thousands of feet deep and 40 miles wide. Magma resides just a few miles below the surface and fractures in the Earth’s crust make it eas
y for the super heated water to rise to the surface giving way to so many hydrothermal areas in the park. Yellowstone has the largest collection of geysers, hot springs, mud spots and steam vents.
When I first started out this morning, everything was covered in snow. It was beautiful. The sun was out but it took several hours to melt the ice. I didn’t realize that Yellowstone was as big as it was. I drove nearly 100 miles starting from the entrance and I probably only covered about half of the park. 
I wouldn’t have been able to do the rest anyway because many of the roads were already closed for the season. There is a lot to see in Yellowstone such as deep forests, mountains, waterfalls, rivers and streams and various types of thermal activity. The thing I was most interested in seeing though was the wildlife. I was able to come across wild elk, hundreds of buffalo, a bald eagle and several coyotes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any bear or moose. I think the spring and summer months would be the best time to visit this park.
I finished off my visit to Yellowstone with a stop to see Old Faithful. This is probably Yellowstone’s most famous attraction. I went off like clockwork, actually about 3 minutes early. It was now almost 3pm and I had to make a decision, either continue south to finish the last leg of the loop and drive back to Jackson, or head out of Yellowstone via the west entrance and go to Montana. 
My time in Jackson was cut short by rushing to Yellowstone before it closed, and there was more that I wanted to see there. However, Jackson was almost 100 miles back south. I decided to head to Montana. Out of Yellowstone, I took US-191 north through the Gallatin National Forest. This drive reminded me somewhat of driving through Colorado, mountains everywhere and fast flowing streams that ran parallel with the road, fly fisherman abound. I was hoping that Montana looked like this, beca
use this is what I was expecting. I stopped at Big Sky, a very nice ski town. Lone mountain summit was covered in snow and it’s prominent peak is visible from miles away in any direction. Next stop was Bozeman which is where I started writing, once again at a Barnes and Noble. It was already dark when I arrived but I did drive around a bit just to get a quick feel of the town. I had to finish this up over breakfast and coffee at McDonald's because B&N closed at 9pm before I was done. It 37 degrees this morning and it looks like a nice day is in store so it's time to start exploring Bozeman.
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