Yellowstone in a Day (Not)

Today was supposed to be a “get to know the park” day….with a free version of the Yellowstone In a Day bus tour.  As we left Mammoth, there was a light snow falling.  We knew we wouldn’t get to see the entire park, but thought we’d get to  most of the northern locations….shall we say we clearly didn’t consult Mother Nature.  We got down to Old Faithful, the snow starting coming down at about an inch an hour–and the roads started closing.  The road back to Mammoth had an accident on it that kept us from just turning around and leaving….so we ended up coming back to Mammoth after a 2 hour stay at Old Faithful…with a park police escort.  The good thing was that by the time we got to  the the really curvy road close to Mammoth the roads were clear….and there was no snow….it’s snowing now, though, and who knows what it will look like tomorrow.

Along the way we also got to watch a bison take out a park sign–but none of us seem to have gotten a picture.

Here’s a variety of videos and images from today.  Qik Videos are linked here.  I’m becoming very fond of Qik.  From certain parts of the park it lets me stream live even though the quality is cruddy.

This is video that I shot out the bus window with the 7d….we did make 1 quick stop at “Fountain Paint Pots”–which is the gurgling stuff at the end of the video. April 28 snow

Here are a few still images.  The blue pool from fountain paint pots–a grizzly in the snow (shot from the bus)–the front of the Old Faithful Inn (where I’ll be working) a new friend, and some bison in the snow (as we whizzed by in the bus before the roads got worse–I could have spent an hour at this spot–or at least 5 minutes composing the shot)

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