Yellowstone, day 1

no ride today, a trip up from Victor ID to West Yellowstone, WY. Drive was uneventful, a bit of mountain to deal with but nothing like Teton pass or anything. We got set up in the park, right in town, a small place but everything is really good, flat spot with plenty of room for the slide out, good water, clean bathrooms, internet connection rocks. We got set up, took a quick walk through town to the post office, grabbed some lunch on the way back, a quick stop at the grocery for some cheese and crackers for later, then headed out to Yellowstone National park. We headed up the northwest side for a "short loop." We caught a glimpse of a bull elk with a heck of a rack across a meadow. We stopped at a waterfall then a hot spring sorta place then up to the artists paint pots, see the first picture. Pretty cool spot, with all these different colored hot spring holes.

Next stop was Mamouth Springs, a series of hot springs with a board walk through the area. Really amazing spot, as with all these the pictures don't really don't do it justice but the different colors and the blue water with the mountains in the background is pretty darn cool. The trip back down gave us a few more critter sightings, first a buffalo literally right along side of the road, then another one marching up the other lane of the two lane road, leading a parade of a half dozen cars. A few more buffalo in the next field as well. We also saw a bunch of cars parked along side the road where we saw the bull elk earlier and stopped. The field was littered with elk, a few right near the road, but no bulls.
Howie caught this sunset along the Madison River on our way out to the west entrance.
Tomorrow is another potential epic, but I had nothing to do with route finding, so maybe this one will work better, cross your fingers.