The next morning we dropped Apollo off at the Cottonwood Ranch for his 3-day break and then headed into the park where we camped in the Fishing Bridge area.  Yellowstone is amazing for its amazing for its diversity; mountains, rivers, streams pond wetlands, active geyser, and abundant wildlife all sitting on a gigantic active volcano. There is so much to say about Yellowstone, we will let these few pictures give you a glimpse.

On our first day we took a long hike up to Brunsen’s Peak (elevation: 8564).  The two miles going up on a well groomed trail was a bit harder than we expected in that the rapid increase in altitude made us pause to catch our breath from time to time.

 

Suddenly it started to snow hard and the temperatures dropped rapidly. Before we knew it we were in a winter wonderland.

Was it all easy? No. The last night our furnace touched off the smoke detector and we had to shut it down. The temperature in the RT went to 38 degrees and we had to snuggle to keep warm. Not a bad thing.

Just added the following picture. The Elks are rutting, now shrieking and carrying on. Two nearly ran into our van. This photo is of a very large, probably older elk and his harem bedding down near the Mammoth Visiting Center in the park.