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....

Yellowstone, Day 2

Day 16

We weren't eaten by bears again. Or the coyotes we heard howling.

Yet.

It rained last night and the small tent is also leaking now. Our bedding was wet, so we rigged clothes lines for it. Fortunately, the air is dry out here. In Georgia we'd be up the creek.


We headed into to Mammoth again to grab breakfast and a shower. More elk. Then it's back to camp to arrange for a second night of camping. A deer carcass was found gnawed by a bear on the campground that morning. Swell.

We swapped out tents, putting an extra tarp over the big tent, finished drying everything out and greeted our new camp neighbors, and English couple with a springer spaniel. By noon, we're ready to actually see the park.

We headed around the north side again, through Mammoth, then around to the south over Mt. Washburn. MarKay is not enjoying the switchback roads overlooking cliffs, which are a recurring theme on this trip. We grabbed a mediocre lunch and checked out the visitor center at Canyon Village, then down to the south rim of the Yellowstone River. We went on a long walk to Artist's Point, which has an amazing view of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. It's incredibly scenic, but the 1 1/2 mile hike was more difficult than it looked on the map. After navigating the steep grades on the trail, we stepped out into the Artist's Point parking lot. MarKay was not happy to realise we could have taken the car. The road has no shoulder and curves a lot, so walking back along the side wasn't safe, so we hiked back to the upper falls. MarKay and Sean were about done in by then.


And that was our day. Everything in Yellowstone is so far apart, that you can spend most of your day driving to things. A late start and just a few stops later, it was time to go back to camp and cook dinner. The steaks we bought back in Utah finally made it to the grill--best meal of the day.

We carefully packed everything into the car. Everything, that is, except the water container we dowsed the fire with. In the middle of the night a ranger woke us to stow the water bottle to avoid attracting bears. Any container is verboten overnight. The rangers were really patrolling that night, which was both reassuring and a source of concern.

Yellowstone bound

Day 15

We were not eaten by bears.

Yet.

We drove into Grand Teton on 89. This is really beautiful. I'm still wishing for that panoramic camera lens. We can't stop for a ranger badge here, but we did pick up some souvenirs for Sean. Unfortunately, were rushing through here to get to Yellowstone before the camping fills up. We'll want to come back and do this are justice. There's supposed to be great wildlife viewing opportunities just off the main roads, but it'll have to wait until next time.


We continued north out of the park on 89 (you don't have to pay if you stay on 89, but we had the pass and took a more scenic route.) There was some slow traffic from road work, but after a bit we reached the Yellowstone gate (here you pay.) We traveled into the park to the first campground and discovered a few surprises.

The first was that this campground was still closed for the winter. We knew that some campgrounds were closed, but the website had not indicated that this was one of them. That's bad news for us.

The second was snow on the ground. We don't have real winter clothes with us, but it's still wintry here. Also bad news for us.

The third is that Yellowstone doesn't have plumbing in most of its restrooms. They're just latrines at the camp sites (and we didn't have a shower in the Tetons campsite.)

We drove north to the first camping area that we could reach. They told us there was still camping to the north. So we drove some more.

We reached Old faithful just in time to see the steam dissipate from the eruption. So we grabbed a snack and prepared to wait 92 minutes for the next eruption. Sean enjoyed the spectacle, but the adults are starting to feel like they are at Six Flags.


Back in the car we drove north to the next possible site. I'm told here that there is now only one site left with camping, and it's near the North gate. So now we bypass more sights as we travel slowly along mountain roads just to insure we have a place to sleep. There's a good bit of Spring construction in progress and any animal sighting brings the road to a halt. We're here for a day and we're missing everything. Stress is building.

The road parallels the Gibbon River as the drop down a long series of hills. The river runs along right next to us. But it's flowing the other way. I stop and confirm this. I swear the river flows up hill. Like the house of magneto at Six Flags. Stupid river.

We reach the campsite in time to get a spot. We set up camp and head out to Mammoth (the northern village within Yellowstone.) There are places to eat and a Ranger lecture here (Sean needs one as a badge requirement.) We sight a crowd watching a grizzly bear on the way. It's a little too close to camp for my taste.


As we look over the ranger schedule, we have a revelation; we've had the date correct but not the day. We've been thinking it was Wednesday all day and couldn't understand how we were short a day. We actually have two days in Yellowstone (as planned) but somehow are brains are so muddled we had lost site of our schedule. The mood lightens instantly.

We enjoy a nice tour of the old cavalry HQ at the park (thanks Ranger Matt!) and then had a sit down dinner. Mammoth is full of female elk. We also spotted a horned owl o the tour. When we return to camp, we are told that a grizzly has been sighted on the campground. At least we're in the middle of the camp tonight.

I sense a theme developing...