Day 34 Exploring Yellowstone National Park

Day 33 started out at the “Three Bears’ restaurant for breakfast.  As you can clearly see at first there were three bears,

now there are four!

  I had a pork chop and 2 eggs, but was most impressive was the biscuit!

 Today would take us across Yellowstone national Park, across the Bear Tooth Highway to Billings, Montana.   We entered the Yellowstone Park at West Yellowstone and took the river drive and saw no animals except two crows that were picking on a bald eagle (go figure).  At Madison Junction we headed north so that Babs could see Gibbon Falls.

  Then we headed back toward Old faithful.  We once again back tracked to “Fire hole Canyon Drive” where there is a great water falls

and the river is warm enough to swim in. However, due to the high water swimming was not allowed.  Heading toward Old Faithful we stopped at the Lower Geyser Basin, one of Babs favorites where she saw the “Paint Pots”

.  We bypassed Old Faithful, Babs watches it every day via the Old faithful web cam, and stopped at the Black Sands basin where Emerald Pool is, another one of Babs favorites.

  We made a quick stop at Kepler Cascades and then continued over Craig’s Pass to Yellowstone Lake

ending up at Lake Hotel

where Babs was a maid at the adjoining cabins.

 

Many events shape the landscapes of Yellowstone. In most years that event is fire

, but this year it is floods.

Crossing from Madison Junction to West Thunb, I was amazed to see the amount of snon on the ground even in the lower elevations where there are thick forest.

We stopped at various overlooks including Canyon of the Yellowstone.  We continued through Hayden Valley which is teaming with Buffalo.

  We had to stop for the Buffalo and it’s calf to cross the road in front of us.

Where there are buffalo, there is lots of.

We headed out of Yellowstone National Park through Lamar Valley and the NE Gate.  This part of the park is less traveled but has some spectacular scenery.

 About five miles outside the east gate is Cooke City, MT.  We ate lunch there at a little Bistro where it cost us $20 for a hamburger and a grilled ham (1 slice pressed ham) and cheese sandwich.  After lunch we headed to Billings, MT via the Bear Tooth Highway.  For those of you who have not traveled the Bear Tooth, it is a 69 mile long "knuckle biting" narrow, twisting road that is the highest highway in the Northern Rockies.

 The highway climbs to over 12,000 feet with about eighty 180 degree turns both ascending and descending.  Of course, we had to be on the outside nearest the long drop offs!  The drive offers beautiful snowy scenery from what seems to be the top of the world.

 There are even huge waterfalls

and frozen lakes.

Tonight we are in Billings, MT. Tomorrow a short ride to Deadwood, South Dakota.

Babs Says:  We are a day behind schedule, but could not be so close to Yellowstone without going there.
Yellowstone (tune of Edelweiss)
Yellowstone. Yellowstone
I'm so happy to be here
Sky so blue, geysers, too
Buffalo, elk, and 2 deer

No more time to finish. Maybe later.