An eventful day.

On leaving the hotel, we were told that the road through to Yellowstone from Grand Teton was closed because of snow, so we had to do a 100+ mile detour back into Idaho and into the West Entrance of Yellowstone.  Drove across some very snowy high plains with almost whiteout conditions.

Got to Yellowstone and drove down to Old Faithful, stopping at Fountain Paint Pot (a real variety of pools with clear, bubbling mud and steam varieties) and at Grand Prismatic Spring (the one with deep blue and other colours).  On the way we saw loads of Bison - some right next to the road.

Old Faithful dutifully erupted 20 minutes after we got to it.  Not huge, but still quite impressive.  We watched the 15 minute film about Yellowstone and then headed back to the car.

The drive to Gardiner was snowy but fine until we got to 5 miles short of Mammoth Springs and by then the road was covered in snow and they stopped all cars whilst they ploughed and gritted the steep downhill section and removed a crashed car.  We had to wait in falling snow for about an hour and a half and then inched our way down in 1st gear  through bends to Mammoth - oh for a four-wheel drive car!

Exiting the park we saw loads of Elk and more Bison. FInally got to our Air BnB style accommodation at 9:00pm.  It's lovely.  WIll sleep well tonight and tomorrow looks less snowy so will hopefully head back into the park once the roads are all open!