After the day we spent coming across the Bitterroot Mountains, we were so very happy to stop for the night. We found a new Super Walmart not too far off the highway and after asking permission to stay the night, set up in their parking lot. This was a wise decision on our part as there was a restaurant we knew about right across the road so we were able to have a good meal and I didn't have to cook or wash dishes. What more can I say. We thought it might be hard to sleep because of the noise, but the only thing we heard after we went to bed was an airplane that sounded like it was landing on top of us. (this was over in the morning sometime)
We got up about 5 am and decided to get on the road (we were still traveling on Highway 12 but did not know what this route would take us through. It turned out to be a very pleasant ride through another mountain range. This one led us up and across the "Continental Divide" at over 6,396 feet. There were a couple of steep downgrades but we made it.
We arrived at our present location (Sunrises RV Campground) in Bozeman, MT. We got here so early that we were able to get set up, go out to lunch at Perkins and then go see the grizzly bears about ten miles away. This particular grizzly bear is huge. We understand he has been in movies. We only saw him stand up on his hind legs once but did not stay long enough for me to get a picture.
It has rained this afternoon but we are determined to continue on with our sightseeing. Tomorrow we go to Yellowstone.
We got up early to stormy skys and rain. It was hard to try to get enthused about going to Yellowstone in the rain so we decided to find the mall where the movie theater was located. On the way there we decided just to go on to Yellowstone as planned. We did not have the the big camera or the water I had intended to take when we went there. But, we did have on our rain coats.
We traveled highway 287 which everyone had told us was the scenic route to take. There were a lot of places to stop and read about this area. To begin with we entered Gallatin National Forest. We followed the Madison River stopping at the Ranger Station where we learned about the severe earthquake in 1959. Apparently this caused a massive landslide and measured 7.5 on the Richter scale. The ranger station was set up with a working seismograph to measure earth tremors which they told us were going on a lot of the time. Scary huh?
The history about this earthquake is something else. One of the most amazing things was that the rock slide dammed up the Madison River to form a lake (Earthquake Lake) which filled in three weeks and was 190 feet deep and six miles long. When the earthquake happened it cut off sections of highway 287 trapping hundreds of people who were vacationing in the area. Twenty eight people lost their lives.
There's a lot more information about this area but we must go on to our destination... to see "Old Faithful".
We entered West Yellowstone and the little town there reminded us a lot of Tombstone. Visited the Chamber of Commerce to check on tours, which were costly and we were told you would need to make reservations at least a day in advance. Needless to say we opted to just drive ourselves. We did not hang around town very long as we had gotten a late start and didn't want the day to get away from us. We stopped at MacDonalds to grab something for lunch and headed out.
From the entrance to West Yellowstone to Old Faithful is approximately 30 miles. The road goes along the Firehole River which is beautiful and full of fly fishermen. Don't know if they were catching anything or not but there sure were a lot of them.
The lady at the Chamber had told us to watch for animals and to stay at least a football field length away from some of them. She also said to watch where others were parked along the side of the road. That is where we would see some of the wildlife. The first thing we saw were the buffalo (we saw more of them than anything else). Since we had seen buffalo before, we decided they are still big and dirty looking (especially now when they are losing their winter coats).
Next we saw a lot of cars parked so we stopped too. The sight was something to behold and I wished (not for the first time) that I had the big camera. It was a bald eagle sitting on her nest. I had seen this once before but it will always impress me to see them live.
Onward to Old Faithful.....the first geysers we came to in the Lower Geyser Basin. It looked like steam coming out of the ground, hot and smelly. As we walked around, we saw the Fountain Paint Pot which looked like mud bubbling out of the ground. We skipped the Midway Geyser Basin as we were anxious to get to Old Faithful.
As we traveled on, we saw more buffalo and more fly fishermen. The majority of the fishermen were standing in the water. Don't know how they could stand it as I imagine the water was extremely cold.
Finally we reached the Old Faithful area. We parked and walked around to familiarize ourselves with the area. It is actually a small community-like place. They have lodge/hotel, gas station, gift shop, restaurant, etc.
There are benches set up all around the area where Old Faithful errupts. After our visit to the gift shop where I was able to get my National Passport book stamped, we found a viewing seat on the first row right in front of "Old Faithful's" area. We heard several comments on when Old Faithful would make her appearance. It was anywhere from 40 minutes to 126 minutes between the eruptions. We actually waited the longest span of time which we calculated as being around 120 minutes (it was now about 4:05 pm). There were lots and lots of people (children and dogs too). After it was all over, there was mass exit from the park.
On our way out, we saw a wolf (surprised us so I didn't get a picture). Of course we saw more buffalo (they call them bison) and finally saw elk grazing in the distance. We saw a herd but they were too far back to get a picture of them. We also saw several deer. The deer here seem to be much smaller than the ones we have seen before and they are a buff color.
Well, this was a long day. When we got back to Bozeman, we stopped at Ace Hardware (Chris had another project) and asked where to get good pizza. The young lady told us about a pizza/pasta place (Colombo's) and told us where it was. Good pizza and reasonable.
Today (Tuesday) is a day of rest and getting ready to head to our next destination (I think it's Billings, MT).
Oh, I have forgotten to mention that we are traveling with two potted plants and an upside down tomato plant which now has a small tomato on it.
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