Camping at Eagle Ridge we woke early to a splendid morning. The sun was just rising on the distant mountains, the air was warm and clean and best of all, there was no noise.
We rode back in to Yellowstone National Park and the first thing we were confronted with was a herd of very tame deer at Mammoth Hot Springs. They are so used to people and cars and live a happy life on the village lawns. Still, they were nice to observe.
We rode past plenty of hot springs, some with viewing platforms (we didn't stop as there were too many people there!). Others were alongside the road and easy to spot.
We then made our way across to the 'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone' to view the mighty Yellowstone River in all it's glory. We decided to walk the track instead of parking in the upper car-park.
The canyon and falls were lovely. On the way we spoke to a lady who was photographing an Osprey chick. She'd been doing so since they were eggs. From three hatchlings only one was left and would leave the nest within the week. If she wasn't there we would never have seen the youngster, the nest blended in to the environment so well.
We re-met the couple from Oaklahoma - Shawn & Dee (the one's we met yesterday at Cooke City) and ended up chatting for quite a while. We decided to ride together to the upstream section of Yellowstone River where there was an even taller waterfall and you could see the power of the river up close.
We rode together for a while alongside the river, past grasslands, buffalo herds and the huge lake until we came to an intersection where Shawn & Dee turned left and we went right. We waved our goodbye's and wished we could have spent more time together.
We were on a mission to see 'Old Faithful'. It's a geyser that erupts every 90 minutes, therefor there's the associated commercial circus that surrounds the event. It's predictable and there's an awful lot of ice-cream sold between eruptions!
There is a vast difference in crowd numbers during an eruption episode compared to when there is no action!
We'd had enough of Yellowstone by this stage and decided to make our way out of the Park via the west exit. That is until we got caught in a very long traffic jam. Being on a bike we were able to slowly pass all the cars, all 100 of them, and when we got to the front of the line we discovered a car had stopped in the middle of the road to watch one solitary deer! There was a pull-over area within a few meters, but no, they just back-logged the traffic for miles!
Once on the road proper we made our way north to a small town called Ennis. We liked it immediately. We'd just ridden through the most picture perfect valley in the twilight and the views were stunning. Pity my camera battery had gone flat! The whole area is renowned for ranches, cowboys and fly-fishing.
A huge windstorm blew up so it was out of the question to walk down town. We did however, ride in and found a lovely Bistro and enjoyed a great meal. Storms clouds were gathering, many lightning strikes but once again the rain (if there was any) avoided us.
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