We had packed 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 6:20. It was cold and overcast with snow flurries. No one was at the entrance station, so we breezed through into the park. The only thing we saw was dark and an occasional snow flake in the headlights. We had to pull over to let one car pass us. Right before the Boiling River parking area we saw a lone cow elk alongside the road. Fortunately, we slowed down because just as we got near her she decided to cross the road in front of us. There were more elk in the meadow formed by the Gardner River. Just past the parking area more elk were grazing on both sides of the road but they stayed where they belonged.

We checked in at the hotel to get our snow coach assignments and unload our duffle bags. We found that our snow coach was full with 11 passengers so we decided to send our backpacks down on the luggage coach. We had to shuffle some things around so that we had the cameras we wanted for the trip. We had breakfast at the Mammoth Dining Room. We were hoping they had a buffet, but they didn’t so we had to order from the menu. We told our waitress that we were on the shuttle to Old Faithful and she was very good at expediting our order. 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 again using the big yellow bus rather than the smaller 20 passenger bus as they did before. There were four snow coaches going down to Old Faithful. As soon as the shuttle bus was loaded, we headed up the hill to the snow coach station. An overnight snow had left about two inches of fresh powder on the road. We were able to get the front bench seat on our snow coach so we had plenty of space. Jennifer was our snow coach driver again this year. Our snow coach was one of the Mattracks.

We headed up past the Hoodoos and through Golden Gate. The road was snow covered and only required a very small section of wood chips this year. Rustic Falls was totally frozen and snow had drifted down on top of the ice. Swan Lake Flats was a frozen wilderness as always but the increased snow this year was really noticeable. Clouds covered the Gallatins so we did not get to see the mountains. The road was covered with snow.

We encountered a large bison herd on the road before we got to Indian Creek and another one before Obsidian Cliff. We saw a white egret standing in Obsidian Creek. A lone bison at Roaring Mountain chased passengers from one of the other coaches back into their coach and we had to wait until he passed before we could get out. We took a short break at Roaring Mountain. We paused at Nymph Lake to point out the “new” thermal feature. In recent years, the road in this area had many bare spots covered with wood chips. This year, the road is covered with snow. We stopped at the Norris Ranger Station to look for a red fox that was frequenting the area. It was sleeping in the middle of the meadow. We took a break at Norris. Unfortunately, Steamboat did not erupt while we were there. I guess it is waiting for our return trip.

We passed a rather large herd of bison in Elk Park. It was not as large as in other years. We stopped at Gibbon Meadows to look at another bison herd with the steam from Sylvan Springs in the background. Just past Gibbon Meadows we saw an eagle in a dead tree. We stopped to take pictures. We paused at Beryl Spring and noticed snow on the bridge. The road over the bridge has been bare for the last few years. Beryl Spring was very steamy so we did not take any pictures. It was very quiet so you could hear the noise from the steam vents. We stopped at Gibbon Falls to take some pictures. We had to wait for another bison herd between Terrace Spring and Madison Junction. We took the normal break at the Madison warming hut.

A bobcat had been observed in the vicinity for the last few days. Our snow coach driver checked with the ranger who said it had not been seen today and in fact was last seen taking a swan carcass up into the woods. We decided to go out and see whether we could find the bobcat. We were lucky and found it lying along the other side of the Madison River across from Harlequin Lake. It was waiting for some geese and swans which were moving slowly in its direction. A coyote was stalking the geese and swans and tried to get one, scaring them so they changed direction. The bobcat moved to another group of geese but it startled the geese as soon as it got near. A second coyote pressured the bobcat forcing it back into the woods to defend its carcass. As the bobcat was leaving, a bison herd was crossing the river. We also saw a bald eagle in the vicinity.