This scene was very eerie I guess. And again, if you were near the steam, the smell was very much sulfur dioxide. Oh and I almost forgot. When I first came up to those terraces I decided to just walk on up. This was quite the walk, especially with camera gear. Half way there I stopped and looked at a sign, which showed me where I was. I thought, jeez, this is going to suck. It also showed that the top of it was 300 feet higher than the parking lot. This wasn't the trip I wanted while having muscle cramping issues. I finally get up there and what do I see? A blacktop road. I thought, no way. I then figured, oh this is just something for the park service. But no, a car goes up and shows me it's not. They had a road that goes up there. Doh! That added amount of walking finished me and my muscle cramps for good. I would learn how much so later in the motel room. The couple inches of snow on the board walk, the length, and carrying gear made it a chore.

Cool mountain clouds.

Tired, now with a headache I head back to the motel. This would be night two in the Gardiner Helltel. Not long after I get in I realize how bad things are cramping. Now the big toes are getting involved, bending straight down. It sucks, there's nothing you can do to help it. If you relax the foot it makes it much worse. Sometimes you can put pressure on it against something just right to not let it cramp. Next thing to cramp, some muscle down the outside of the calf. Never had this one cramp before. When I was doing stuff with my hands earlier, they were cramping. Then the one that scared me the most kicks in. The muscles down the side of the rib cage. I've had those cramp before and they feel like they want to break you in half. Just not fun. I head to the store and buy 2 things of gatorade, which by the next day seemed to have helped. Getting to that next day was the challenge. I was about to fall asleep at 9 mountain time when someone arrives in the room above me. The family from hell I will call them. Thump thump thump. KAPLUNK. Thump thump thump. KAPLUNK. From 9 to 11 this was constant. I didn't get how or why. I was like, what could one have to do that required no time to stop and sit for a while. It pissed me off enough after a while that I stood on the bed and pounded back on the ceiling. I will put up with stuff far past most. It takes a lot to get me to do much. What takes even more is to get me to put my contacts back in and get dressed. I did just that and walked up stairs. I wanted to see who my friends were. No doors were open. I expected to see some school group up there for something. Finally around 11 I fall asleep. This after putting toilet paper in my ears, flipping around in the bed so my head was closest to the heater/fan, and topping it off with another pillow on top of my head. Those didn't do a heck of a lot to drown out the low thuds. The ones that were getting the best of me were the ones that sounded like someone actually falling onto the floor at full force. Once or twice, ok, but over and over. As annoying as this was, it would be nothing compared to the next day/night.

Still at the Mammoth Terraces area. The "fire and ice" play was everywhere in here(the park). It was now Saturday, the day that the snow was supposed to really let loose.

I came down into Gardiner at night when I first got there. It was snowing and starting to stick to the roads. I even hit a wall of fog coming around one of the mountain edges. I remembered enough of it to know I didn't want to do it it in a big snow storm. Well I drove back up it and out of it here and am in the flat areas in the nw part of the park. You could see this low cloud moving across the landscape, producing snow. It was neat, but at the same time, reminded me of the snow storm that was supposed to let loose in here with over a foot of snow in the park, some forecasts saying well over.

I did not like that drive down into Gardiner much yet, and this is partly why. That twisty sucker was more ice than anything else. I could do it with my eyes closed now. I thought, I have the room in Gardiner again for tonight, I don't want to make this drive back down in worse conditions later. I also just wanted to get it out of the way and drive back down it. So I went back down to Mammoth. Crawled in 2nd gear for a lot of it. Just not a fun road with solid ice on it. This section above was one of the nicer ones...actually some snow on things...and no hills of death around.

Still going back down.

Back to the terraces I get out and shoot them again, this time using the damn road at the top. Snowing pretty good now.

When it is cold there you don't see a whole lot of the cooler things. You see steam instead.

What I should have done now was switch rooms to West Yellowstone. I didn't. I now had a headache from hell. One that about makes you sick and you don't want to open your eyes as you move around. I thought screw it, I've seen the only thing to see here enough now anyway. It was supposed to snow hard today and I figured the park roads would close. So back to my motel room I went, early. Me and my headache get in there at 1 pm, planning to take a nap and catch up on sleep. What the hell is going on in there at 1pm? The same damn noise above me! Exactly the same. Crap dropping, heavy foot steps. Unbelievable. I swore they were working up there, but that wouldn't make sense if it was happening the night before at 11pm. I thought about calling the front desk, but it was afternoon and it really does take a lot to get me to go that route. Obviously, as I never do call. From 1 till 6 it goes on constantly. It started to bug me out as I didn't get what anyone could do for that long without stopping and sitting down and watching tv or something. From 6 to 7....silence. They evidently left for an hour. 7 it starts back up. It doesn't stop till midnight. I'm the biggest tool for not calling the desk. So sometime around midnight I finally get my nap, lol. Headache still going in full force. Gee I wonder why. So to sleep I fall. At least that is till 4 a.m rolls around! At 4 I'm woken to the power going out and the heater shutting off. I think to myself, yay for this trip, but at least it is silent. Moments later.....thump thump thump! They woke up too! JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Next thing I hear is a baby crying up there and a young kid talking. Then I hear the parents talking. God I hate that place still. So 4 hours is all I get for sleep. Time to start the next wonderful day in Yellowstone.

Mountain pillow cloud. (that's not a real name...I don't think) I leave my motel room with no way in hell of returning. While checking out, after packing everything in the car, someone at the desk says they finally closed the road from here to Norris south into the park. Wonderful. For the last two days I shot the terraces, the stinky terraces, with a headache and no sleep, with its wonderful, no-headache-helping odor. And now they are my only option, since the road is now closed. What boggled my mind was the fact I could drive from Gardiner to the terraces above Mammoth. I thought, if I can drive up this twisty sucker, why exactly can't I drive on the more flat section up in the park! Not helping matters was the fact that West Yellowstone to Norris to the falls or Norris south to Old Faithful and the geysers was still open. I was like, damn it, had I stayed in West Yellowstone I'd have avoided much of this mess. There was no big pass type thing to go through down there. It stayed open. And I know damn well there's no other family capable of such noise in this galaxy. So, I sat in the car at the gate waiting on them to open it. Around noon I finally get through and head south. This was going to be my last day in the park, and here I was, not heading south to Old Faithful, etc until noon....never having even been down there yet. So much for the Tetons on this trip, lol.

Cool tree covered in thick thick frost near a steam vent.

LOL. Idiot(me) front and center at Old Faithful. I finally get a cell reception as I near Old Faithful. I call home and see if anyone is online. I had them look up the next eruption time. 2:07 they say, +/- 10 minutes. Time in the car....1:51. I hurry in there hoping to not miss the possible 10 minute early eruption time. I walk around and around, freezing my butt off since I didn't take the time to throw the coveralls back on. Over 20 minutes passes and it is "2:20". I call back and am like, are you sure that's the time and I didn't miss it. They say that is what it says, so I hang up. I then realize where I messed up. I never figured out how to change the time in this Blazer so it had been off an hour the whole time. So it was 2:07 back home......1:07 here at the moment. So I was over an hour early! And to think I never even noticed the right time on my phone when checking the minutes. I walked back to the car, frozen for nothing, thinking....this is fitting at this point.

The right time, sun now out a little bit. Mostly hazy though.

Continue to Page 4