The start of a new season.

The winter season has begun. My first day back is on Winter Solstice and it just happens to be dumping snow here in Mammoth Hot Springs. Like last winter, I have returned to being a server. Some new things lye ahead for myself. Over the last two weeks, I have been working out. I started slowly but have made great improvement in my strides to get where I would like to in my workouts. Another new thing for myself and many others is the dining room. Mammoth has undergone a serious remodeling of floor plans with new everything...almost. New chairs and tables along with carpet and center pieces and how can I forget to mention a new computer system that is suppose to be user friendly but so far has not been living up to the hype. I'll give a few weeks to learn the in's and out's.

On the 20th of December, Sam made his way up the hill with Matilda. Running like new and he said if it were him, he'd put money into it. So it seems as if Matilda will be with me for a while. I moved most of my stuff from her into the room and found out that my T.V. in fact, did break when I put it into the truck. No worries on that. I do have a new HDMI projector which casts a rather large screen some might say. After unloading my stuff Sam convinced me to go out to Cooke City.

We got into Little America and I past a ranger going 45 and then I past two other cars who were going about 35...So then I look in my mirror and the ranger is trying to catch up to me. So then I think if I should pull over and get it out of the way, or is the speed limit 45? I continued to drive and no lights were turned on...Just people trying to enjoy their vacation.

Cooke City had  some snow and Sam just looked in amazement. I tried to tell him that it wasn't much and he'll need to come back in a month and he agreed. On the way back there was an idiot who decided to stop in Ice Box canyon where the roads curve and perhaps you assumed they were icy. So trying to slow down without crashing the car I ended up passing on the left illegally but much safer than trying to stop.

After passing the Pebble Creek bathroom area, another car was stopped in the middle of the road. By the time we caught up to them, they had put their car in reverse and parked at a pullout. There was one photographer there with a small point and shoot camera. We looked and I saw two moose. We drove up to the next pullout and did a U-turn and parked by the closer one. Exiting the vehicle I started snapping pictures and later found that there were 4 male moose and one female. We could here them sparring and their antlers clashing. It was quite surreal to see and hear and it made my first official day off in Yellowstone a most memorable one.

Too cold to get a more zoomed and clear shot.

Undine Falls is still flowing.