Friday, 26 January 2018
After Canyon, we continued following the lower loop road.
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| The next stop was the Hayden Valley. This can be a good location to see wildlife, but today it was snowy and windy, and no wildlife was in sight. |
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| The Yellowstone River flows through the valley. Lots of ice was floating down the river. |
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| Between snow squalls visibility improved. The tracks below the bluff were made by a bison. |
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| We visited two thermal areas today, Mud Volcano (above) and West Thumb Geyser Basin. By the time we got to West Thumb, it was too late to get good pictures. |
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| The presence of snow and frost shows how ground temperatures can change over a matter of inches.. |
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| A "mud pot" in the Mud Volcano area. The mud has a lot more water in winter with snow melt. Summer is a dryer season, and the mud gets much thicker. |
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| Black Dragon Caldron in the Mud Volcano area. |
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| Runoff from the thermal features. The black dots are ephydrid flies that live in the hot springs. In the winter they survive in a thin layer of warm air above the hot water. |
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| A closer look at these flies. |
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| A snow squall over Yellowstone Lake. |
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| The sun was setting as we drove along the West Thumb portion of Yellowstone Lake. |
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