Yellowstone Day 4: Steam and snow

Another night and yet more snow. So much in fact we deployed the snow scraper and windscreen spray before we started out. Thankfully the roads were ploughed well but we still had to be careful.

Todays drive took in a range of areas near Old Faithful that we hadn't had time to cover on our previous outings. However we did start with a re-visit to Grand Prismatic Spring to see this very active thermal area again, this time in the early morning covered with snow.

The scenic Firehole Lake drive provides a nice side trip off route 191. Along the short drive there is a number of geysers, pools and mud volcanoes. Seeing the various thermal features amongst a background of snow was truly magical.

Soon we were back on the 191. It's amazing how a blanket of snow changes the scenery. Areas we had driven past in previous days looked completely different with a full white blanket. It was hard not to pull over at every vantage point.

Soon we reached Gibbon Falls. A lot of tourists were out to see the picturesque falls which are smaller than many we have visited recently but very pretty. Sam had fun playing with the mountains of snow.

On the way home we took another side trip via Firehole Canyon road. Surprisingly this road was a bit quieter on the tourist front which was surprising. There were a number of nice falls and a swimming hole which wasn't doing too much business today.

We had one last stop at the Fountain Paint Pots on the way home. The Paint Pots were not that colourful (mainly slurping grey mud) but the Celestine pool certainly displayed an interesting palette of colours in the blue water and surrounding red and orange earth.

After a rest back at the cabin we set out to explore the thermal areas next to Old Faithful village which could be reached with a short walk across a stream from Old Faithful geyser. It was late in the afternoon, the sun was setting, the clouds had mostly vanished but the snow was still around.

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