Our first full night's sleep for the trip ... ahhh, bliss!! We made a pretty leisurely start to the day, so nice to not have to pack up all our gear into the car for a change. Even with a late start, we still managed to make it across to the Park before the main wave of tourists arrived.

We started at the Fountain Paint Pots, and were lucky enough to catch Fountain Geyser erupting. We gradually worked our way down to Old Faithful. Isobel had a ball bouncing around in her backpack, which made it a bit difficult at times for Andy to take photos with a wriggling baby on his back! We saw lots of geysers and mudpots, gorgeously coloured run-offs and springs, and walked through lots of steam ... such a bizarre landscape in amongst beautiful meadows and streams. We saw a few more bison and elk too - Andy managed to get some good shots, they seem surprisingly tame for wild animals.

By the time we made it to Midway Basin it was early afternoon, and we were going to make a last stop before heading in for lunch. We parked the car and started unloaded - Isobel gave a bit of a wave and fell asleep on the spot! Rather than risk getting her out of the car, I stayed behind and Andy headed for a lap of the boardwalks and took some photos. She was still out when we passed Black Sand Basin, so Andy ducked out for some more photos while I kept watch in the car.

After about an hour Isobel roused again, so we grabbed some lunch at the cafe near Old Faithful. We decided to head out around the boardwalk behind the geyser - we only stopped quickly yesterday, so didn't get much of a chance to explore the rest of the area. We ended up at the Beehive geyser a few minutes before it went off - quite lucky, as it only blows about twice a day. Unfortunately we were also downwind from the geyser, so once it started erupting we had to make a run back up the boardwalk to get out of the plume ... Andy and I were soaked, Isobel got a little wet but stayed mostly dry in her stroller. The poor Park Ranger stayed behind with one gent in his power chair, and got absolutely drenched ... above and beyond the call of duty! Needless to say Isobel was not impressed with this variation to the script - it was a bit of a surprise, and with lots of people around us also trying to get out of the plume things got a little noisy. Still, we consider ourselves pretty lucky - not only did we get to see Beehive Geyser erupt, we got caught in the downpour too!!

At this stage we decided to head back to the hotel for the day - we made a detour for an elk herd by the side of the road so Andy could get some photos, and Isobel had a bit of a walk up and down near the car while we waited. Once back at the hotel we did some washing, and had a chat with the front desk staff to get a recommendation for dinner. The hotel staff came through - we headed to Beartooth Barbeque, and had fantastic pulled chicken sandwiches - yum! They might get a return visit tomorrow night.

Isobel dropped off to sleep pretty quickly after a big dinner, and we had a look through our photos from today. We also did a bit of planning for tomorrow - we'll probably head down to the Canyon area for a look.