Day 12 (1/2 day sightseeing, 1/2 day travel) West loop of Yellowstone Nat'l Park - Bozeman, MT) (186) miles, new total (2826.5) miles
Left the camp at just after 8AM after another night below freezing. There was quite a fog and early views of the Lake were very restricted.  This made viewing at the various sulfur and hot springs, which populate the West side of the Park quite heavily, very difficult as steam/fog was rising off the water in all the pools.  You still quickly realize that the classical natural beauty of the East side is in sharp contrast to the uncommon vents from the bowels of the earth on the West.  Along the West side of the Park we crossed the Continental Divide 3 times.

Our first stop was at Kepler Cascades, a series of small waterfalls/cataracts. Mother Nature is quite a sculptor!

Our stop at Old Faithful although perfectly timed, (we walked up to it just as its eruption began) was less than spectacular as it only reached a height of roughly 30-40 feet instead of a daily average of  130'.  The next expected eruption was anywhere from 60-145 minutes so we moved on.

Old Faithful

Next we visited The Midway Geyser Basin, located adjacent to the Firehole River.  It contained the Excelsior Geyser, the Grand Prismatic Spring (Yellowstone's' largest hot spring), the Opal Pool and the Turquoise Pool.  These hot springs were alive with active bacteria that thrive in this high temperature/high acidity environment and contributed to the extremely colorful runoffs.

Grand Prismatic Spring

Our next stop was the Norris Geyser Basin & Museum which contained a number of additional geysers  and a basin of hot springs, geysers, mud pots & steam vents  of over 10 acres.

Norris Geyser Basin

After this we moved along to find a roadside picnic spot to have lunch. We found a small one with tables next to a meadow and we were joined by a pair of friendly gray mountain jays.  One was friendly enough to eat out of my hand but the other was only bold enough to land on our table and eat from a plate.

Our friendly mountain Jay

Our last stop before exiting the Park at the North was Mammoth Hot Springs.  The spring was located quite high above the road and afforded a wonderful view from the road, although you could climb the hillside on a boardwalk and see it up closer.

Mammoth Hot Springs

We then traveled about 70 miles to Bozeman to our new camp for the night.