We got up and it was snowing again. We could not see the mountains. All we could see was the ridge above the old railroad bed. We showered, finished packing, and checked out of our room in Gardiner. By the time we checked out of the room, it had pretty well stopped snowing. There was about 2 inches of snow on the ground and the roads were white again.

We made our last entrance for this trip through the Roosevelt Arch and moved slowly up to Mammoth, pulling over to let a couple of speedier folks get around us. We wanted to see as much as we could before we had to leave. The large elk herds that were near Boiling River last night had moved out. We did not see any sheep or bison. We stopped at the Visitor Center to see Tom Cawley before we left but he was not around.

We left Mammoth and headed out toward the Lamar. Mt. Everts was mostly snow covered but this snow fell in such a way that the horizontal layers of rock rather than the vertical ridges were emphasized. There was a scattering of elk and bison. A few bull elk were lounging across from the Wraith Falls parking area. The bison that were on the slopes at Blacktail Ponds had moved down to the flats. The elk were not visible.

There was a large herd of elk across from Phantom Lake. No one was looking for wolves at either of the Elk Creek overlooks. We saw a few bison near the road at the Tower Ranger Station. We stopped at Tower Junction to look for the Agates but did not see any.

We saw a large herd of bison bunched together near the Lamar River Bridge. There were several cars parked at Slough Creek as that pack had been visible earlier in the day. We saw a coyote north of the road as we entered the Lamar River Canyon. It had started to snow again and the valley was pretty well socked in. You could not see past Jasper Bench to Specimen Ridge.

The Druids were visible from the Buffalo Ranch. They had moved further east and were bedded down when we came through. There were reports that 302 and 375 were trying to mate but 302 would hop off every time 480 came around.

There were several large bison herds in the bottom of the Lamar Valley and a large elk herd up close to the trees. A coyote ran across the road at the Trash Can pullout. We checked for the otters and the beaver but they were not visible. Parts of the Soda Butte Creek that had thawed out yesterday were now frozen again. We drove up to the Hitching Post and turned around.

Right after we left the Hitching Post a white ermine crossed the road in front of the car. This is the first ermine we saw in Yellowstone. Unfortunately Deb was looking for sheep and she missed it. We turned around to look for it but it was no longer visible. Deb did not let me forget that she missed it!

We saw the four rams above the confluence. We stopped at the Buffalo Ranch to look for the Druids but all we saw was a coyote. All of the wolfers had left the Buffalo Ranch and Slough Creek as well to go for lunch. We saw another coyote just before Tower Junction. We noticed that the tops of the mountains were still veiled in mist. We did not know whether it was snow or just clouds.

A few more bull elk had moved to the Wraith Falls area. Just past the Gardner River Bridge we saw an old bull bison just ambling down the road to Mammoth. There were two deer along the road in the sheep management area. We said goodbye to Yellowstone as we passed through the Roosevelt Arch.

We went down the Old Yellowstone Trail to check up on the pronghorns. They were still in the same areas as the last time we saw them but they had spread out quite a bit. We went as far as the iron bridge and got on the main highway. We saw an osprey between the road and the Yellowstone River. There was a large deer herd in one of the irrigated fields just past Yankee Jim Canyon.

We drove back Trail Creek Road to check out some property and saw a hawk sitting on a fence near the road. Trail Creek Road is a dirt road that goes from Route 89 near Emigrant to Interstate 90 on the Bozeman side of Bozeman Pass. We saw a few properties that bear further investigation.

We checked into our hotel at Bozeman and finished packing, rearranging and balancing the load among our bags. After the bags were packed, we went to Mackenzie River Pizza for supper. After supper we called it a day as 4:00 a.m. comes very early.