Snow in Yellowstone

Miner, Montana
Carbella BLM Boondocking



The snow arrived during the night as expected and coated Yellowstone with a healthy blanket of white.  We've been here a few times but always in the summer.  It was beautiful to see it with some snow.

 

On the way in we stopped in the town of Gardiner to look take a few pictures.  The previous rain really muddied up the water.  I'm glad we got our fishing in when we did.

 

These pictures turned out funny as this is the same Elk on two different sides of the building.  Front half and back half, but in two pictures.

The poppies were in full bloom.

Some Elk laying in the sun in town.

Looking back toward our camp with the snowcapped mountains.

The night before Steve and my brother had taken the Ranger back up in the mountains and ran across some large wolf tracks.  HUGE!

  

 Some flowers and cactus by camp.

After driving through town you immediately enter the north part of Yellowstone Park at the Theodore Roosevelt Arch.

  

It was still cold and windy so we're glad we were doing a drive around the northern loop of the park.  We skipped most of the hikes.

Liberty Cap

 Palette Spring

 The colored terraces of the spring were beautiful!

 

There are some falls along the Yellowstone River as you drive with plenty of places to pull over.

These young Grizzlies were playing Peek-a-Boo along the river.

The cold temps seem to make extra steam come out of the vents on the mountainside.

The black dot in the center just under the bridge is a Momma Black bear and her two cubs. There were plenty of rangers out as the bears were everywhere and they made sure no dummies ventured too close.  There was one woman who actually walked past the coned off area warning to stay clear of the bears that the Ranger had to tell her to get out.  Some people!

Diane checking out the cute visitor center cabin.

 

After driving about 1/2 way around the north loop we stopped in at one of the lodges for lunch.  I didn't get any good pictures but it was more 50s Retro than Mountain Lodge.  The food was not very good.

That snowy peak in the middle to the right is Mt. Washburn.  It sits over 10,000 feet up.  Last time were here Steve and I hiked up to the top.

Zoomed in you can just make out the tiny observatory at the top.

 More buffalo.

 

 

Basalt pillars in the mountainsides on both sides of the river.

 

On the short hike out to see the river overlook at Calcite Springs this little fellow was determined to get his treasure back to his hole.

One of the famous overlooks of Yellowstone River.

That black dot in the tree is a sleeping bear.

Were on our way to Lamar Valley to see if we can spot any wolves as this is the area they hang out.

We finally spotted some of the female Bison with some babies.

We took a side road and came upon a lot of people in a filed with several high powered scopes.  We parked and walked over to see what they were all looking at.  I didn't get any pictures but folks are always happy to let you look through their scopes.  There were several female wolves with pups far across the field.  You could only see them through the scopes.  It was the first time we've seen any wolves in Yellowstone so we were pretty excited.

More Pronghorn and Bighorn sheep on the way out.

 

On the way out of the park we spotted this camper on his way in.  I think we've found our camper to bring to Alaska!

 

Back at camp I finally got a decent picture of this colorful fellow.  Any of my birder friends know what it is?  Very cute.

This ends our time in North Yellowstone.  Really nice to see it covered in some snow!

Hopefully this is the last snow we have to deal with.  It is JUNE afterall!