Yellowstone Tues 29/8

Today we had a great day driving around the central road circuit of Yellowstone. We had been warned that it would get busy early. However getting out of bed before we have had a cup of tea  just doesn't work. Then we had to have our cereal, fruit and yogurt out on this fantastic  upper story verandah. So it was 9am before we had rubber to the bitumen. Never the less we were out overlooking the Yellowstone Grand Canyon before the crowd filled the car park. We walked down 3/4 mile decending 600 feet to photograph the Upper Falls of the Gibbon River as it descends through the Canyon. It was truly worth the climb back up. Either we have become more aclimatised or the graduated path  made it easier.We went from there to further around the South Rim where the walk is reported to give spectacular views. Unfortunately this was where ambition met reality. There was one car park closed for reconstruction work and the other one was grid locked with drivers looking for a space. We did one circuit, realised the walk was closed for the construction work anyway and called retreat. We then went around to the North Rim of the Canyon where we repeated the climb down, this time to the lower falls of the river. The views were unimaginable to us flat land people where rivers flow rather than roar. There  is still ice on the glaciers on the highest peaks so the river was effectively in flood. The Canyon is narrow so the pressure of water over the falls was spectacular. My photos won't do it justice but I will post them anyway.
From there we meandered our way around, found a herd of Bison grazing and I struggled heroically out into a sudden onset of wind and rain to photograph them for you. Found a spot to eat our lunch and were swooped by a small bird with Magpie - like behaviours who wanted to share.
We then took the road home around the rest of the circuit and discovered just how variable geysers can be. Yesterday Bob commented "seen one geyser, seen them all",
Today demonstrated just how different they can be. We saw mud geysers, boiling water geysers, volcano geysers,( this one erupted just as we reached the boardwalk), and a Dragons Breath geyser which huffed steam from the mouth of a cave. On our way home we took a couple of minor side roads around geyser basins and along a minor canyon. It rounded of an excellant day. Photos separately.