Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life-and travel-leaves marks on you.
----Anthony Bourdain

Thursday, March 14, 2024

The Great West Trip Part 4

We entered Yellowstone National Park through the East Entrance and began driving through what I would call the mountain area. I had no idea that each part of the park would look so different. Our first stop was at an overlook. We had to stop because the views were spectacular. The pictures don't do it justice.
The obligatory picture at the entrance.
As we made our way through the park, we started to see random buffalo in the fields. There weren't big packs of them in this section but it was a thrill to finally see some.

We saw our first geyser/ hot spring of the day
First buffalo sighting!
We noticed this rather large crow sitting on the roof of the bathroom. It was pretty loud and Robert was able to get rather close to it.
We stopped at Calcite Springs and I walked the path to the overlook. The water was a stunning color.
The steam coming from the side of the river was pretty cool.
See what I mean about the color of the water?

These formations were made by volcanic activity

We were surprised that we hadn't seen as many buffalo as we were expecting. A quick talk with a ranger gave us the information we needed. We drove through what I would call the "plains section" and managed to see a lot of them. Babies, mamas, daddies, and even some pronghorns in the mix.

Buffalo mamas and babies
Pronghorns in the background mixing in with the buffalo
Having our fill of buffalo, we continued on. We stopped at the Albright station at the North Entrance and saw some elk as well as some interesting rock.
We were amazed that these elk were just hanging out in the midst of the visitor's center with a lot of people around
This rock looks like snow cascading down a mountain
In the afternoon we made it to the geyser section (as I call it) which is in the west side of the park. We opted to skip Old Faithful which I think turned out to be a good choice. We aren't crazy about getting in with the crowds and by the look of the line of cars, it was going to be pretty crowded. We stopped at Beryl Springs and got a pretty good idea of what a geyser looks like on a smaller scale and without a lot of people.
Beryl Spring is one of the hottest springs in Yellowstone.
It was named "Beryl" because of the blue-green color of the water reminiscent of the gem beryl.
We stopped at Flood Geyser just as it was finishing its performance. This is one of several geysers in the "flood area" of the park.
I couldn't find this so I'm going on the assumption that it's possible that this area floods since there is a stream/river flowing through this section.
Or maybe it's because it looks like it's flooded. If you know, let me know!
As we made our way to the South exit, we saw a few more geysers/hot springs which were just fantastic to drive through:
Our next mission was to find a place to stay for the night. I had the coordinates of a place to boondock but, surprisingly, Robert wanted to find a campground instead. We stopped at one place and were pretty much told, "Good luck". I checked a campground in the Tetons and, as luck would have it, they had one spot left. We snatched it up right away. It wasn't the best campsite we've ever had, but it gave us a place to park the van.  More on that next time!

I realize how much we missed by doing Yellowstone in one day. This will be one place I want to return to and spend more time. There is so much to see!

Thursday, March 7, 2024

The Great West Trip Part 3

Decision time: Do we go north to Banff, northwest to Glacier, or south to Yellowstone? When I looked at how many miles it was to Banff, it looked like we would spend 6 days just getting there and back to Billings. So, we decided against it. We also decided against Glacier. Cody was of some interest to us, so we made the choice to drive there. The views were well worth it:

This house on top of the butte interested me. It seemed like it was the only house around for miles.

The different colors of the mountains/hills were beautiful.
Again, this sight struck me as interesting!
2 tunnels on the road: it kind of reminded me of Ireland.
After we arrived in Cody, we went by the visitor's center to get information on the town, as well as a recommendation on where to eat lunch. The young lady was most helpful and suggested Irma's. The official name is Buffalo Bill's Irma Hotel. Buffalo Bill Cody built the hotel in 1902 and named it after his daughter. The building is a working hotel; the rates are actually quite reasonable. Some of the rooms are historical while some were added on as late as the 1970's. 
The grill was recommended to us for lunch. We split a sandwich and had potato salad for a side. I'm super picky about my potato salad so I try to steer clear of ordering it at a restaurant, but theirs was just like my mom's! Quite a pleasant surprise!
This cherrywood bar was presented to Buffalo Bill by Queen Victoria. She shipped it to the hotel after his performance for her in London.
The fireplace is in the hotel section of the building. It is made from rocks, fossils, ores, and minerals from the Big Horn Basin.
After we ate we visited the Cody Historical Society and learned more about the town. I asked the ladies who were working if any of Buffalo Bill's family still lived in the area. He had 2 descendants (from Irma) who were in the area. One of them steers clear of the Cody name; the other one used it to make his fortune. Sadly, he was killed in an airplane crash. I wasn't able to confirm this by researching on the internet; there isn't much published about the family.

From Cody we headed to Yellowstone. There are several campgrounds along the way. We chose Rex Hale because it is the closest to the park gate that has a bathroom. Although we have a bathroom in the van, it's nice to have one close by so we can empty the cassette toilet before leaving. 
We almost turned around and went back to the Wapiti Campground since it looked like it was better shaded but there was a spot here. The camp host was extremely nice. He is a retired archeologist and was very interesting to talk with. Plus, the vault toilet was the best-smelling vault toilet I've ever been in! He kept it immaculate!
There are no showers, electricity, or other amenities here. But the views are worth it! Maeve looked great in that setting:






It was very quiet and peaceful; exactly what we wanted and needed. The host said there were little to no worries about bears. The North Fork Shoshone River runs behind the campground and if there are any bears to be seen, they would be fishing in the river. We chose not to chance it and stayed away.

That was our big day in Cody. We discussed going back into town before we headed to Yellowstone but then chose to keep going. Yellowstone has to have a post all on its own!

Thursday, February 29, 2024

The Great West Trip Part 2


After we left the Badlands, Devils Tower was next on the list. We just passed through and honestly, I would have been happy with seeing it in the distance and not actually driving into the park. It was rather crowded and, since we weren't hiking, the views weren't worth it to wait in line to get to the parking area. 

It was hot, but it was July, and crowded. I am surprised that climbing is allowed, for a fee, of course. We ran into a Polish couple in Yellowstone who climbed it. It must be done in the back of the tower; I didn't see anyone climbing but we saw the information for it.

We thought about camping in the area but with the temperatures predicted to be fairly warm overnight, we opted to stay in a hotel in Gillette. At some point in your life, comfort outweighs adventure.

From there we headed to Billings, Montana. We needed a "rest day" and it was a good time to do laundry and replenish groceries. We were able to secure a somewhat shaded spot at the KOA. This just happened to be KOA #1 so we felt like we found gold!
It was your typical KOA: Kind of tight spaces but the amenities were nice. We thought the location was a little odd: It was behind a residential area. We decided that the campground was probably there first and the houses were built later. Robert soaked in the pool and I sat with my feet in it for a while. We finished our laundry and relaxed. The Yellowstone River runs behind the campground.

While driving into town to go to the grocery store, I was pleased to see that the underpasses had been spruced up:


While at the campground, we discovered we had some interesting neighbors:


Robert looked it up because the employees had some question as to when to attempt to remove the nest with the least amount of bother to the campers. It's a "bald-faced hornet" and is very aggressive.  According to some sites I looked at, they sting repeatedly and can spray a "venom" in the eyes of an attacker causing watering of the eyes and temporary blindness. The nest was across the path from our site but thankfully they waited until after we left to take care of it.

We had a big decision to make. After seeing Robert's pictures when he rode his motorcycle to the Arctic Circle, I've wanted to see Lake Louise. We made sure we brought our passports just in case we went over the border but we had some considerations that we had to take into account. Do we go north into Canada, west to Glacier National Park, or south to Yellowstone? Or do we decide to go another route and do something different? Find out in Part 3!

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