Yellowstone Park, WY & MT

What a day! We left Red Lodge, MT under clear blue skies and bright sunshine. Just a spectacular day, everything was so crisp and clean; you could see for miles with no haze.

We drove from Red Lodge to the Northeast Yellowstone entrance via two scenic highways and then travelled the northern sections of the upper loop in Yellowstone Park to get to the West Yellowstone entrance. We are staying in the Grizzly RV Park which is four blocks from the West Yellowstone entrance.

MLA and I ran out of superlatives long before we entered Yellowstone Park. You can only say Wow, OMG, Spectacular, Takes your breath and Unreal so many times before they lose their impact (not to mention your mouth gets tired).

The scenery lays out before you, never ending, and larger than life. Our RV's windshield serves as a huge picture window to the world, and the scenery kept getting better and better. Hard to believe because we thought it was beautiful as soon as we left Red Lodge. The Beartooth Mountains had their own weather system surrounding them, with big puffy clouds circling the peaks.

At one point we saw a sign for the Two Dot Ranch; not a big deal you say since there are lots of signs to identify ranches out here. Well this one was a little different.

We drove along the highway for at least 5 miles, probably longer, with Two Dot Ranch along side of us the whole way. Then, just when you thought you had reached the end of the ranch, we turned 90 degrees onto another road and a sign said "Two Dot Ranch Property - Next 8 Miles". This ranch butted up against the mountains and had a major US road running right through the ranch. Who knows how big the ranch is overall -- we know it's at least 8 miles by 5 miles. Wow! Plus they could use the US Forest Services open range land to graze their cattle during the summer.

We saw numerous streams and rivers along the way. And mountains that took your breath away with their beauty and majesty. As we were getting closer to Yellowstone I saw one peak that looked a little like the Matterhorn, with steep sides and a sharp peak. Surely, I thought, that mountain is so spectacular it must be a part of Yellowstone Park.

Wrong. Passed that peak and drove another 15 miles before we entered Yellowstone. I mean, you end up asking yourself how beautiful must Yellowstone Park be if that peak we just passed didn't make it into the park. Then you enter Yellowstone and you see what it takes.

Grand sweeping vistas, covered in golden meadows and dark green forests. Rivers that sparkle in the sunlight, white as they crash over rocks and downs waterfalls; deep emerald greens in the deeper sections and clear sparkling water in the shallows. Mile after mile of people fly fishing. And watching wildlife. Huge herds of Bison in the distance and then hard up against the road.

I felt a little more secure in the RV today driving by Bison than I did the other day when we drove by Bison on the motorcycle. If anything, the Bison are even bigger here in Yellowstone. Hard to believe but I think it's true. I mean, I'm not going to get out and measure them but they seem larger, and appear to have heavier coats.

Yellowstone is known for many things, including it's rivers and waterfalls. We only saw a few waterfalls today; it's hard to park the RV towing a car in those little turn-outs. Tomorrow we'll be able to explore by car and that will be much better. We did see a few geothermal pools, complete with steam rising into the air. MLA saw one pool as we drove by where the water was boiling; can't wait to go back and see in more detail.

All in all a long day of driving and we are exhausted. Driving 200 miles took a lot longer than normal because: 1) the speed limits are pretty low in Yellowstone 2) we stopped whenever we could to enjoy the view/take photo's 3) we hit a little bit of road construction.

Normally you figure about 4-5 hours for 200 miles; today's drive took us just over 7 hours. MLA handled it well although we are both bone tired. Even the dog is tired. Travel days upset Dobbie's highly developed skill for sleeping most of the day away...

It was a great feeling when MLA and I discussed the fact we have no plans for next week so we can take our time exploring and stay in Yellowstone as long as we like. Awesome.

See Ya!