We have really enjoyed reading the report that people have placed on the list-server, so in order to pay back a little bit, we offer the following report. We were in the park a week before it closed last year. We left on November 1 after a week visit and have been patiently waiting, almost 6 month, for the spring opening. This was the first time we have visited the park on opening weekend and we were determined to go. We left Ogden, Utah at 3:30 Friday after work and school and arrived in West Yellowstone Friday night at 8:30 PM. We grabbed a good night’s sleep and woke early (4:50 AM), got ready and drove into the Upper Geyser Basin. At Fountain Flats we saw a white wolf along side of the road. We didn’t pass or see another person all the way in. We arrived at the parking lot by the Old Faithful Visitor’s center at 6:40 AM. We unhooked the bikes and headed down the basin. Grotto was in marathon. We dropped by the giant platform and Bijou was off and everything was dead. We then went down to Fan and Mortar, noticed that a marker was in place. Nothing was happening there so we walked around and observed: Oblong 0650 Riverside 0710 Daisy 0752 At around 0800 Scott Bryan reported over the radio that a grizzly was passing between the Inn and the Visitor’s Center. (Apparently there are three bears that are frequenting the area, one has a red collar) We then road our bikes to Castle and walked the boardwalk up to Geyser Hill. We spent the next couple hours on Geyser Hill. We observed: Plume 0853 Aurum 0948 Depression 1015 We ran over to the visitor’s center when heard Casey called a Beehive indicator 10:16 ie we walked out to the platform across the river from Beehive to see: Plume 1052 Beehive 1059 We walked over to Geyser hill and watched: Plume 1154, 1247 Lion Initial 1321 Aurum 1329 Plume 1343 ns We then headed down the hill on our bikes. Grotto was still in marathon, so we headed down the hill to check on Artemisia. We had been waiting at Artemisia for about 2 hours. We could hear on the radio that there was a grizzly passing between Castle and Grand and heading down the hill. From what we had heard it sounded like the bear could be coming our way.   At 1635 we walked a 100 yards up basin from Artemisia to where the trail goes down the hill. We saw the grizzly cross the river by Fan & Mortar and head into the trees. We couldn’t see anything for a minute them someone called us on the radio and let us know the bear was coming our way and had already passed Morning Glory. Just then down the trail and 100 yards away breaking into the open was a very large black grizzly coming up the hill directly towards us and moving quickly.  I told Curtis to follow me and we started leaping over the logs heading in the direction of the river. We stopped every few seconds to see if the grizzly was following us. We got about 75 feet away from the road as the grizzly went by seeming not to even notice us. It was a little too close for our comfort. We spent all our time getting out of the bear’s way that we didn’t even get a picture. We decided to go up and check on Grotto. We arrived at Grotto at 1645. Grotto’s marathon had ended so we walked over to check on Giant. Bijou was still dead. We went back to our bikes which where at Grotto. At 1707 as we walked by Grotto there was a large steam cloud down by the bridge. Above the steam cloud over the trees water was spraying. There were two good burst and lots of steam. We took off on my bike down the hill to investigate. As we rode down the hill we were surprised to see that the spray was actually from link. By the time we stopped in front of link the eruption was over. There was very heavy overflow down into the river. The wind was blowing and the spray had gotten the asphalt pathway partly wet.   We hung out for about an hour but nothing more happened. At 18:05 we saw the steam cloud from Artemisia. We headed up the hill and stopped at Grand. We waited 5 minutes and then: Grand 1829 two burst We went back down the hill. We observed: Daisy 1939 ie Riverside 1955 Oblong 2028 We went back to the Giant platform to wait for the recovery hot period. At 2040 the water started to rise in mastiff. In less than a minute Feather and Feather satellite came on together. Surging in Mastiff was to 3 feet with heavy overflow By 2044 India was completely covered The action stayed pretty constant with mastiff dropping to mild overflow at about 9 minute. The hot period lasted just over 11 minutes The restart was almost immediate (within second). It lasted about four minutes. There was mild surging in the Giant cone. By this time it was getting dark. We took a quick look at Fan and Mortar. There was nothing going on there so we decided to call it a day. We had to bike up to the parking lot behind the visitors center because of the three sisters cut-off closure.  I wear a Garmin Fortrex wrist watch GPS to keep track of the distance we travel each day. The reading for today was 21.3 miles, and we felt it, we were pretty tired, but it was an exciting and rewarding day. We left the parking lot at 2145 and headed back to West Yellowstone. Just past Midway Geyser Basin we saw a white wolf cross the road. Sunday April 24, 2005 We got up later than the pervious day, we need the sleep. We went into the park and stopped at Fountain Paint Pots to check on Fountain. It wasn’t looking promising so we headed over to the Upper Geyser Basin. We saw Riverside 8:55 ie. We check Fan and Mortar it was the same. It was following a cycle but the water levels just weren’t there. We went to Giant and waited to see the next hot period. Bijou paused and the water began to rise in mastiff. After about 2 minutes. At 0914, Feather came on. It was followed shortly by feather satellite. Mastiff surged to a foot, but then got so steamy that we had trouble seeing it. The overflow from mastiff was good, and India was completely covered. The duration about 8m 45s The restart was slow and weak. We saw the steam cloud from Artemisia at 0946 ie The wind was really strong most of the day. We hung out at Oblong for a while but it wouldn’t go. We rode up to the Parking lot behind the visitor’s center (This was getting old). We had lunch. And after we heard that Silex spring was empty so we decided to head out there. As we left we heard on the radio that beehive went at 1226 without an indicator.  The indicator was called at 1228. We went to Fountain Paint pots and watched Silex Spring fill. Some of the boiling was pretty violent and impressive. I also noticed a lot of surging and boiling in Celestine pool. The day was getting on and we had to be back to work and school tomorrow so we took a quick hike around Black Sands and Biscuit Basin and then headed for home. This trip was really nice. We really enjoyed the wildlife. The company was great; it was very nice to renew some of the acquaintances we have made in the last year. The weather was a little windy but not bad. We had a great trip and can’t wait to go back. See you in a few weeks. Kendall and Curtis Madsen