<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'>I took the half-day (12:15 to 5:30) Xantarra tour from Mammoth to Norris on Friday, January 22.  This allowed about two hours of actual time at Norris.<br>A few things of note:<br>There was about four inches of fresh snow in the basin.<br>Vixen 1450 ie.  A good eruption and as always an amusing drain.<br>Steamboat was relatively quiet and the minors were small.  We did not visit Echinus.<br>Large tree immediately south of Monarch was coated with ice of a yellowish-green color.<br>Ice cones in the Black Growler/Ledge area north of the museum were very large.<br>In the Porcelain Basin Constant and Whirligig were quiet, but the vents in the eastern portion of the basin were very active, much like this previous May.<br><br>There was a herd of perhaps 50 bison in the meadow along Gibbon south of the Norris campground.<br>Otters are being seen in the Gibbon River near the campground.<br>The tour I took was in a van which provided much better views than the ones offered in Bombardiers.<br>Even though this tour only allows for two hours at Norris it is a relatively inexpensive ($57) means of winter access to the interior of the park. Because this was a generalized tour we were kept moving and had little time to "sit" any particular feature.<br><br>Kent Morby, tourist<br><br><br> <br></div></body></html>