Day 14: West Yellowstone, Montana

Yellowstone is the oldest of the US national parks and is unique compared to the other parks we have travelled through in that there is an abundance of large wildlife in the park.
It is a very geothermally active area not unfamiliar to us Kiwis who also live where the earths crust is thin. The park itself contains a giant caldera and scattered around are a variety of fumaroles, geysers and other bubbling things. Most famous must be Old Faithful known for erupting every 90 minutes or so.
The landscape is hilly but there are large plains interspersed by meandering rivers. The bits not occupied by the above are covered by lodge pole pines, which must be about 80 percent of the land.
Dave and I rode anticlockwise around a 130mile loop taking in most of the scenes but mostly just ticking along and trying to absorb the sights and sounds of mother nature.
You might recall a picture earlier in this blog of Dave boarding the Vancouver Island ferry, his bike already on board but him not as he had to go get a coffee. The doors were held open for him as his highness strolled along.
Today he went one better. Old Faithful is so named as it erupts every 90 minutes plus minus 10 minutes. So at exactly 90 minutes after the last eruption Dave decides he needs a coffee and buggers off to reappear proudly with 2 cups as the last vestiges of steam are drifting away. No way was I going to wait another 90 minutes.
Today's photos are a smattering of images from around the park. For my hunting mates, check the head on that stag. It was maybe 3 metres away from me but kept burying his head in a bush!
We met several really nice people today including Bob Erickson who is a keen motorcyclist who has ridden the great divide trail just a month ago. Lots of useful information and generally good chat. We walked down 300 steps in biking gear and back up to look at a waterfall. Meeting him at the bottom was a bonus. Given that we are at 8000feet the air is quite thin so I think it was a good effort. Especially Dave who carried his tools weighing about 40 kg down, presumably in case one of us broke a boot buckle.
My lovely wife requested more photos so more photos you get.