My secret weapon: Thursday in Yellowstone

Awoke to gorgeous Montana mountains.

Yogi Bear remains elusive along with the black and grizzly bears in Yellowstone but hey we have pretty much covered all the other animals.
This morning, it was cool but again smokey damn those fires.

The elk were around the streets of Gardiner again - our first views on the way to the supermarket.

We crossed the Yellowstone River on a high bridge - first photo opportunity.

We decided to do the Lamar valley first and that did not disappoint - heaps of bison next to the Lamar River.

Lamar is so lovely, green lush pasture next to the streams.

We visited the petrified tree which had been fossilized due to an eruption.

This was just one of three left on the site due to fossil-collecting tourists and so it was fenced off. We stopped for a light lunch at the picnic area- it was cool out of the sun but lovely in it.

A fellow traveller brought out his guitar and we enjoyed the sun to a little light jazz.

Hunter liked this spot too.

There were a number of bison crossing the roads- they seem to enjoy doing this and being admired as they amble along next to your car.

They give you the eye to check out if you are friend or foe and I would not like to be the latter as they could put a pretty mean dent in your car. They are huge!

We also saw these two pronghorn sheep - the first I had seen since Jackson.

The road down to Canyon wound up high and we could see the regenerating forest following fires.

At Canyon Village we visited the information centre - good volcanics lessons - and the shop. Hunter tried the hat on but didnt think it was her style.

I had decided we must do an hours guided walk on the South Rim of the canyon with a ranger so we brought walking shoes. We met ranger Mary, a young lass,

from South Carolina at Uncle Toms Trail carpark. We saw the higher falls

And the lower falls

and got a pocket history of the Park from Mary. It was supposed to take an hour but i think Mary liked listening to her own voice and she embellished the stories with her own personal flavour. The canyon is awe inspiring

It was a good experience though and learned lots of history about the area. The sun was disappearing behind smoke and the wind was getting up.

Smoke was getting thicker on the walk and by the time we were back at the carpark it was making me cough. There was a fire near Norris and as we were heading back to Gardiner that way I felt slightly nervous. Having heard from ranger Mary that an 18 year old had died falling over the canyon this season and learning that 2 people were killed by bears in 2011 I wasn't keen to become one of Yellowstone's statistics. There were no cars going my direction but Dan assured me they would have stopped us if there had been any problems. We eventually got back onto the road north and more bison stopped us on the road.

I also had a close shave with a police car who noticed I was doing 50 mph instead of 45. Rock formations are stunning here and I only stopped once on the homeward stretch to Gardiner to take these photos.