Leaving Yellowstone

Day 17

We packed the camp for the last time today. We're once again in Mammoth for the morning. Sean earned his junior ranger badge from Matt and then we had to choose between visiting the hot springs north of Yellowstone or heading out through the scenic Bear Tooth Highway. The scenery one, so we grabbed a shower again at the hotel. Female elk here are like pigeons by day three.

Gas was $2.99. Sean predicted the price as we drove up. Sinclair is the only option in the park and they are always overpriced, even when there are competing stations.


The NE exit takes you out through the most heavily populated wildlife area of the park. We encountered Back Bears, Big Horn Sheep, Pronghorns, Buffalo and male elk. We played bingo on the park brochure, crossing off wildlife we had seen.



We left the park without ever seeing the south east portion of Yellowstone, or most of the geysers, hotpots and other volcanic features. If you come here, plan four or five days just to cover the distances.

The Cooke City exit was torn up, so it took quite a while to reach the town. I had promised Sean a McDonald's visit, but Cooke is a little town of locally owned shops. We grabbed lunch at the Bed and Bun, which served one of the best burgers I've ever tasted. Whistler, the owner's beagle, jumped into the empty 4th chair, put its chin on the table, and looked soulfully at us as we ate. A husky also works the tables there, howling softly for scraps.

We grabbed some souvenirs for the road and headed up the Bear Tooth. The road is lined with 12 ft poles. After much pondering, MarKay realised these were guides to keep the snow plows on the road and off the shear cliffs.This highway takes you up a series of switchbacks to an altitude of 11,000 ft. It's still frozen up there and there are some breathtaking views of the Montana mountains.


We dropped back down and made our way toward Billings. Suddenly we had cell phone service again. Ben's messages came flooding in. He had last spoken to us in Jackson, when we had nowhere to stay. Then we had dropped out of the civilized world and phone contact. He didn't know what had happened to us. He kept scanning for news of deaths in Yellowstone (there were two while we were there) but they didn't match our descriptions.

My cousin Audrey and Charlie also tried to reach us, so we got straight with everyone and made our way into billings. Garmin was well behaved. We arrived in time for dinner and conversation. We had a fantastic time, I met my cousin Jeff for the first time (he reminds me of Bruce Campbell), and we caught up on laundry before bed. Audrey even has the same sheets as we do at home. A real bed and home cooked meal is priceless tonight.

And there are no more bears....