Wolves at the door. Part 2

The next stop was to head for the geyser fields of the caldera itself. Yet again, we were greeted with views straight from a sci-fi movie.

In some areas, despite all the thermal activity, there was still plenty of snow on the ground.

We can’t help but feel that this extra chill in the air increased the amount of steam and obscured a few of the features we were expecting to see.

I’m pretty sure that the Grand Prismatic Spring is hidden behind all of that steam…

I’m sure the view would be…well, visible, on a warmer day…

We caught brief glimpses of some brightly-coloured features as the steam moved about in the wind.

The landscapes dominated by billowing steam were impressive on their own. Even when we knew the clouds of steam were masking amazing thermal features we had really hoped to see, we couldn’t help but be a little bit awe-struck by the swirling steam clouds and dancing fields of vapour.

But the geysers, being plumes of hot water and steam anyway, were probably made all the more spectacular as they blasted through the chilly air:

Some places were free of the enveloping blanket of steam and allowed us to see more of the dramatic caldera for ourselves. The Grand Prismatic Spring may have been rendered nearly invisible under a thick cloud of steam, but we didn’t leave disappointed:

Old Faithful, true to form, was right on schedule for a spectacular eruption of steam and water. Watching this famous geyser erupt was a perfect finish to our time exploring the volcanic features of Yellowstone.

It was at this point that we started to do something strange. We started to actually head south to Mexico—imagine that!

It was getting late, so we stopped for one more night in a campground on the southern edge of Yellowstone National Park. By the time we arrived at our camp spot it was dark. The snow on the ground, combined with the chilly night air had us hiding up in our tent in our sleeping bags as soon as dinner and dishes were done.

We heard some howling in the night and hoped it was wolves, but suspected it was only coyotes. Either way, although it sounded close, we didn’t stick our heads out of our warm tent to check, because nestled in the forest camp site, we thought there would be nothing to see.

It was the next day when we looked in the snow to see a lone set of very large wolf prints walk out of the woods, around the nearby pit toilet and then disappear back into the woods.

So close! But again we were just left with wolf prints without meeting their owner. Another good reason to return to Yellowstone one day, just to catch a glimpse of some wild wolves—we’ll be back!

With most of the park’s roads due to close and time on our visa down to a week, we continued to head south.

The rugged Grand Teton, south of Yellowstone.