We decided to pack as much as possible last night so we did not have too much to do this morning. We were on the road to Mammoth by 6:25. The moon was up fairly high; a bit more than a quarter moon. No one was at the entrance station, so we breezed through into the park. It was too dark to see anything on the hillsides. We had breakfast at the Mammoth Dining Room. They had their Sunday buffet. We then unloaded at the hotel and got our snow coach assignments. Only two coaches were going down and one of them was a Yellowstone Institute Winter Wonderland tour. The Prinoth and the shuttle bus arrived not long after we returned to the hotel, so after loading our luggage, we got on the bus. This year they were using the big yellow bus rather than the smaller 20 passenger bus as they did before. As soon as the Institute tour assembled, we headed up the hill to the snow coach station. Jennifer was our snow coach driver. Our snow coach was one of the Mattracks.

The road was bare of snow up past Swan Lake. The NPS had spread wood chips to provide traction and steering for the vehicles with skis. With the Mattracks, we had no trouble navigating over bare road, snow, or wood chips, so we had no worries. In Swan Lake Flats, the grass was sticking up about a foot over the snow, where other years it had been covered. There were also patches that were totally devoid of snow. We stopped to take pictures of the Gallatin Range. The little snow there was glistened. The sun reflected against the flat white face of Antler Peak.

We stopped at the Indian Creek warming hut for a potty break. Just before Willow Park, we came up on a bison herd in the road. Jennifer waited until the bison made room for us. After a quick picture stop at Roaring Mountain we headed towards Norris for a bathroom break. We stopped at Nymph Lake to look at the new thermal feature. The Prinoth driver radioed us to tell us there was a red fox in the meadow near the old ranger station. It was gone by the time we got there. The road to Norris was also bare of snow. The NPS had spread wood chips to provide traction and steering for the vehicles with skis. The Norris basin was extremely steamy. We were hoping for a Steamboat eruption, but no such luck.

We left Norris and headed towards Madison. There were bison in Elk Park, but no elk. We stopped at Gibbon Meadows to look for wolves but all we saw was a bald eagle. We took the old road to Gibbon Falls as they had not done any work on the bridge for the new road. We stopped at Gibbon Falls for a photo op. We noticed that someone had side hilled the hill across from the parking area. It had to be an employee as only two cycled snowmobiles would be able to climb that hill and only employees and NPS staff are allowed to use them. All other snowmobilers must use four cycle snowmobiles and have a guide to prevent that kind of activity! We stopped at Madison for a potty break.

We left Madison and headed for Old Faithful. We took a side trip on Firehole Canyon Drive where we stopped for a photo op at Firehole Falls. Only snow coaches are allowed on Firehole Canyon Drive before noon. We headed down along the Firehole River and saw several swans. There was an adult with a single cygnet and another group of three cygnets. We also encountered another herd of bison on the road. We waited for them to pass and proceeded to the old freight road.

We followed the old freight road past Ojo Caliente spring. We saw two coyotes. We were not sure whether the second one was a coyote but after looking at it with the binoculars I confirmed that it was a coyote. Everyone was unhappy as they thought they were looking at a wolf. We were able to see Fairy Falls from the road. The blue ice really stood out in the distance. After we crossed the iron bridge and got back on the main road, we encountered a small herd of elk on the road near Mallard Creek Trailhead. We waited for them to move.

We continued on to Old Faithful without any more stops. The road from Black Sand Basin to the turnoff for Old Faithful was totally devoid of snow and had a few areas where the NPS had spread wood chips. Most of this section of road was dry pavement. We say three more coyotes. We arrived at the Snow Lodge and checked in. We went to our cabin and got ready to go out to the geyser basin. We went to the Geyser Grill for lunch and met Kristine (Yellowstonegirl). She is working at the grill this winter.

It was extremely warm again today. We shed our jackets as soon as possible. There were several people walking around in short sleeved shirts. We headed out to the geyser basin. Giantess was i.e. so we stopped for some pictures. While we were there Giant had a hot period. Mastiff surged to four feet and we were hoping for a Giant eruption. Giant and Giantess on the same day would be spectacular. A number of people started for Giant thinking there was a good possibility for an eruption. But alas, the hot period ended and we would have to wait for a Giant eruption another day. The Nez Perce pack made a kill near Fan and Mortar but there was no action now.

We decided to return to our room. We stopped at the Snow Lodge to get details on our snow coach trip to Canyon tomorrow. They told us that since only the two of us had signed up for the trip, they would cancel it unless at least two more people signed up tonight. We rescheduled for Wednesday as that trip already had enough people. We went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner.

We went to the Snow Lodge for dinner. The dining room and the bar were empty. No one was waiting for a table. Usually people are out in the hall waiting for tables. Only two tables in the bar were occupied. Usually the bar is full. Only eight tables in the dining room were occupied. I found out they were only sitting two tables every 15 minutes in order to stretch the dinner period out. We normally eat in the bar, selecting several appetizers for dinner. We checked the appetizer menu and decided to try the dining room. The appetizers included hummus, artichoke hearts, a Tofu dish and a brie cheese dish. They no longer offer things like chicken strips, battered shrimp and onion rings.

We went to the dining room and were seated immediately. The menu was just as bad. They no longer offer things like roast duck or Cornish game hen. Prices run from $17.00 to $25.00 per entree. There are a few less expensive items such a burger ($9.50) and fish and chips ($12.50). The appetizer menu is the same as in the bar. Deb had a bowl of soup and a garden salad. I had fish and chips. We decided to get box lunches for tomorrow and have them for dinner.

I asked the server whether it is always as empty as tonight. He said this was normal but they expected it to pick up later in the month. Since this dining room is the only place to get dinner this indicates that there are a lot of empty rooms in the lodge. We did not notice any rooms being used in the Western Cabins and the Frontier Cabins were only about half occupied. It would appear that the snowmobile crowd spent a lot of nights at Old Faithful.

It was starting to get a little nippy when we left the Snow Lodge. The sky was clear and full of stars. The moon was not up. It was extremely clear. We just stood around for a while taking in the beauty of the sky. We went back to the cabin and were in bed by 9:00.