Very cold overnight - zero!!!! Bright sunny morning, and the smoke seems to have cleared.
Lots of roadworks wherever we've been, sometimes with delays of up to 10 minutes, there's certainly something to be said for having both a dunny and a cold drink on board during these long waits!!
We shopped before we left Jackson, which incidentally is a VERY cute town, and busy all during the year, as a major skiing resort during Winter. Lots of money here, and definitely NO Walmart... However, there is an absolutely brilliant Supermarket - Albertson's - which actually leaves Leo's for dead (that's for the Melbournians).
Had to drive back through the Tetons today and very smokey again - there are fires all over the place apparently. Mountains still obscured by the smoke unfortunately.
Arrived in Yellowstone for a late lunch, and after setting up the RV, we headed off to see what there was to see..
Actually, the trees are rather boring, and seem to almost totally consist of the Lodgepole Pine, which was obviously named for it's perfection for construction log cabins. The lateral branches all fall off as the tree matures, without any scars, so what's left is a dead straight tall pole, of uniform diameter - perfect!!! There was a disastrous wild fire in 1988 which wiped out tens of thousands of acres of trees, but the forest is regenerating nicely. Thousands of smallish trees of near identical height would suggest to me that there had been a bit of aerial seeding post-fire, but have not had that confirmed.
During our day and a half driving around Yellowstone we did see several herds of Bison, a large herd of Elk - which were standing in a small creek, nicely posing for photographs!! Also saw some big-horned sheep, three wolves (separately) - and no photo's to prove we saw them. No Bears (despite there being many warning notices about), and of course no Moose!
We also saw the famous "Old Faithful" do his thing, and spurt boiling water and steam from his belly.
This area of the park is really a full-on steaming cauldron - there are heaps of boiling mud pools, some colourful smallish pools of boiling water, and little hills of coloured run-off.
Some of this boiling water runs off into a nearby river, and somewhere downstream, lots of folk take advantage of the lovely warm water for a swim.
We also the Yellowstone Grand Canyon, pretty impressive, and a great waterfall. Nice walk along the rim.
Also visited Yellowstone Lake - which is North America's highest altitude lake, and which is crystal clear water. Shoreline of about 141 miles - haven't converted that to kms....
On our way home, last half hour in Yellowstone, we're pretty sure we saw a female Moose - not close enough to confirm it as such, but we're so desperate, we're prepared to claim it as a sighting!!!
Exhausted.... Dug around in the fridge and found enough goodies to make a delicious omelette.
Had a message from Libby, she's in big trouble... Has developed a tumour behind her left eye, and this is giving her much grief. I hate to be so far from home at this time.
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