on the last day at Yellowstone

it started to snow. We left at 8 Am , but stopped back at the Fountain Paint Pots area on the way out. We had been here the night before on the Steam and Stars tour ( yes at night  with flashlights on snow covered icy boardwalks) which was very good. Glenn got to see Neptune, Venus , Mars and the most amazing sky full of stars since almost running out of gas in the Ka'u Desert on Hawaii. ( Don't ask- one of our dumber moves.). We also got to see Clepsydra geyser spouting off big time and I couldn't wait to get back and get a video for my son in the daytime.... and all you could see was steam. However the mud pots were bubbling nicely and the colors ( see extra ) were really different than overnight. The bunny happens to live by one of the mud pits. Apparently he has discovered it is warm , there is lichen for food all winter , and the humans don't annoy him too much. Plus he can hide under the boardwalk if he needs to.
I also included two other extras from previous days because the birds need equal time. The very hard to see seriously enlarged bird is an American dipper , one of two on the creek we skied by the day before, and only the third I have ever seen . (So , forgive me if it is a terrible shot , but it was in the shade , dark gray and set against a gray river.But I got all excited to see it ,therefore it gets posted. )The first was in the Highlands 30 yrs ago.The second group of birds were 3 of the 7 ( yes , we all laughed at the 7  swans a swimming) trumpeter swans on the Firehole River. Awesome to see as they are one of those species that are recovering from being endangered.They are larger than the tundra swans and apparently need a lot of open water to take off, like 100 yards.
The main post is a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.Not an endangered species, these come down to the valleys for the winter also to feed on grasses and seed like the elk and mule deer. This on was parked on a hillside and our bus driver kindly stopped to let us out to take photos. He was quite unconcerned ( the ram , not the bus driver). The girls were across the road on the edge of someone's pasture nibbling away.
All in all a great trip . Actual snow, goldeneyes, mergansers, dippers,  golden and bald eagles,sheep , elk , bison and coyotes, and a rabbit. What more can you ask for . Ok a wolf pack  would have  made it amazing. Maybe next time:))