A prismatic stroll among fumaroles

There is no question: Yellowstone NP is simply gorgeous. We reached the western entrance of the park two days ago and spent three days sightseeing. Only half of the park is currently open, the rest will open by mid May, because of the snow. We saw plenty of geysers, steam vents and fumaroles; eerie, surreal environment, rocks of all colours and turquoise bubbling pools and boiling rivers; I was expecting some hobbits to appear on our path any time… We saw wildlife too: bisons, elks, moose and a coyote, and a glimpse of a bear with two cubs. We spent a night in the only open campground of the park, by the north entrance. It was almost full, so once again we got one of the last spots available. This campground has restrooms with running water, but no showers, unfortunately. It rained most part of the night and then it started snowing. This morning, everything was covered in a thin layer of snow. We were fortunate to be sleeping in our heated camper and not in a tent, as some people did. Another few days and we will will be able to fill our water tank and have running water in the camper at all time. We have a water heater, so we will have hot water too, the ultimate luxury. We are also very fortunate to visit all these parks off-season. I cannot imagine how it can be in the summer vacation, with crowds of people all over the place. There are on average 7’000 vehicles in Yellowstone on a daily basis in the summer. Cannot imagine being part of that crowd!