RV Day Four. Grant Village to Madison. Mile 193

PT writes..
We woke at eight, leapt out of bed, realised it was seven, but oops, we'd done it. So off to Old Faithful again bright and early, this time yomping up pine woods overlooking it, and this time it was much more impressive. Then it was a day's tour of geysers, thermal springs, mud holes, waterfalls, sulphur fumes, you name it, our RV was parked next door. Highlights included the Solitary Geyser up above Old Faithful. No not the old bloke in a raincoat, a rather splendid bright blue pool in the middle of nowhere that suddenly shot out silver plumes.[R adds: this was actually rather dramatic. It performs every five minutes and we had seen it bubble about in rather muted fashion a few times. I was all set to go but Philippa said "lets see one more" and we had the place to ourselves so we wandered about close to the rim of the pool. There were a few bubbles glooping up and all of a sudden it blew up so dramatically that both PT and I expected to be boiled alive at any moment (T was in a tree somewhere). The fact that we had found this geyser by chance and we were the only ones there when it blew, made it somehow much more dramatic and dangerous than Old Faithful, despite the fact that Old F is so much bigger.] We saw the Fountain Paint Pots where next to the Red Geyser bubbling up spurts of bright pink mud we found two big Bison having a spa cure. PT spotted a lone wolf in the meadow. And we loved the amazing circus-named Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest big blue pool of spurting steam, with bronze, orange, and chocolate rings of molten stuff around it. We enjoyed it most for the realisation that you could stand in the right position and get your glasses totally steamed up; it was an extra laugh seeing Tom wearing Richard's glasses in an effort to get the sensation just right.

Then we ended up in the north west of the park, at Madison Campground. No big shakes in the tourist guides. But actually.... gorgeous wide lazy blue river curving through shocking green meadows in the shadow of the canyon. Lots of chaps standing midstream... flyfishing... We saw elk.. chipmunks..gophers.. and a clutch of bison... two of whom then decided to walk up to the campsite. We followed suit, had a lovely tortilla supper cooked by Richard, and then the adults watched with delight and a cold beer each as Tom made friends with the large family next door and went off shrieking and giggling through the pine trees for a good half hour. A lovely end to another busy day.