That's Mike way on top of the bridge over the gorge

Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone

Chief Joseph Scenic Byway

Tue, 7/15/08

Yellowstone NP, WY: I went to bed last night before it was even dark and slept until about 8:30. I drove most of the time yesterday and hadn’t had much sleep the night before. Mike still not doing real great either. So we decided on a kick-back day today. I made smoothies for breakfast and then sat outside in the sun for a while. Mike didn’t go out at all. It clouded up a couple of times but turned out to be a great day. Probably the mid-70s. Sat outside and read most of the day. Got the keyboard out and played for a while. We had left-overs for dinner. Didn’t see any attacking mule deer or coyotes today.

That's me--way up on top of that cliff

Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone

Chief Joseph Scenic Byway

Alpine Lake - Beartooth Scenic Byway

Mon, 7/14/08

Yellowstone NP, WY: Decided to drive the Beartooth Scenic Byway and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. Got up early and left at 7:00 a.m. and decided to stop at Roosevelt Lodge for breakfast which is the only lodge we hadn’t seen yet. Roosevelt Lodge was built in 1906 to commemorate the visit by then President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903. He was here to dedicate the Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance. He came and camped for two weeks in the area where they ended up building the lodge. This is the smallest and most rustic of the lodges. It’s a log structure with a big porch lined with rocking chairs and has big picture windows looking out to the mountains. The huge logs still have their bark. The lodge itself is a dining room only. There are rustic cabins all over which is where you’d actually stay. If we were to stay at any of the lodges, it would be this one. It took us 1 ½ hours just to get to Roosevelt. Saw a herd of deer, elk, a coyote, a small black bear, and of course the ubiquitous bison.

After breakfast we started out for the northeast entrance. This took us through the Lamar Valley which has rolling, rock- and boulder-strewn hills and lots of sage brush. I think the Hayden Valley is prettier—more green and lush. The Lamar Valley is where all the elk are supposed to be, but we didn’t see any. After leaving the park the first town we came to was Silver Gate—a cute little place with all log structures. Really small. The next town was Cooke City. We stopped at their general store which has been in continuous operation since 1886. The original cash register and all the shelves, counters, etc. are still there. The original cash register only goes to $3.00. They use a newer one (circa 1890) now. It is a really special place—like stepping back in time. We continued on our way, steadily going up. The Beartooth goes up into really high country—above tree line into an alpine tundra. There is still a lot of snow up there. We saw a guy with skis and poles strapped to his back. Can’t believe he could do any skiing up there—it was very steep. Coming out of the Beartooth we stopped at the little town of Red Lodge for lunch. I love this little town! The historic main street is lined with sandstone and red brick buildings built around 1890. And the little main street movie theater is still in operation. We left there and headed towards Cody. We decided to make a big loop of it instead of backtracking through the high country again. Just outside of Red Lodge was an abandoned coal mine—the Smith Mine. One of the worse mining disasters in Montana history took place here. An explosion killed 79 people. We picked up the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway just north of Cody. This was a spectacular drive which traces the route the wildlife took in their migration—and of course the Indians following. Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce used this route when fleeing from the Calvary. At Dead Indian Pass (on Dead Indian Mountain) we stopped at an overlook to enjoy the beautiful vista. Chief Joseph had to leave a wounded Indian in this area while being chased, and the Calvary finished him off—such brave souls—so since then it’s been called Dead Indian Mountain. The Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone goes through this area down in a deep gorge—1200 feet in some areas. It is truly spectacular, rugged country. I liked the Chief Joseph drive much better. We didn’t get back until after 8:00. A 13-hour day. Saw two more black bears on the way back—one with a cute little cub. A spectacular day again. It hit 89 just before we turned onto the Chief Joseph Byway. 70s in the mountains.

Sun, 7/13/08

Yellowstone NP, WY: Well, we had some excitement today. We decided to just kick back today to give Mike a chance to get some rest. I did some cleaning and Mike put away the grey water tote and some other things. We were both inside fixing some lunch and out the window I saw something run by our camper. Thought it was dogs at first, but then they came back and I realized it was two mule deer doe. We’re at the end of our loop and across the road from our site is dense pine forest. They ran to the edge of the forest on the other side of the road from us. They stayed on the fringes looking at us—or we thought they were looking at us. We came out to watch them for awhile. Then they started walking back about 4 sites down from us again. They were acting strange. We followed them and then they started over to the camp sites and low and behold here comes this coyote. They were stalking that coyote and weren’t going to give up until they got him. Those two doe chased that coyote right in front of our site and back into the forest. We lost track of the coyote and eventually the deer wandered off deeper into the forest. We were standing there talking with a couple of guys three sites down from us and saw the coyote again heading the other direction. I was sitting outside reading a little later and saw a flash of grey fur heading back to where the deer went. Walked into the woods a little bit but couldn’t see anything. Hope he’s not after a fawn or something. We feel pretty special. We have guard deer. Doesn’t get any better than that. Another spectacular day. Beautiful blue sky with no clouds and pretty warm—at least in the sun. P.S. At about 10:00 a whole group of coyotes were in the road about 50 feet from our camp site just howling away. Mike went out to check them out. Said there were about 5 or 6 of them sitting in the middle of the road having a good old time.

Bill Cody Museum

Beaver on the Yellowstone

Sat, 7/12/08

Yellowstone NP, WY: It got really cold last night. Even with the quilt on the bed it was hard to stay warm. Once we got up and got going, we went back to the clinic at the Lake Hotel since Mike is still not getting much better. They gave him more meds and told him he should be at a lower altitude and in a warmer climate. Plus we’ve had really low humidity which isn’t helping matters any. Oh well… And we needed to go back to Cody to pick up some meds they didn’t have at the clinic. So we drove back to Cody. I wanted to go by myself but he wanted to go also. We left at noon and our first stop was the Comfort Inn parking lot to make use of their wi-fi. Then we got something to eat and decided to go to the Bill Cody museum, which is a great place. It’s actually 5 museums in one. They had a special exhibit there about the Thorofare Ranger Station which is located in the remote southeast corner of Yellowstone. The cabin that stands there now was rebuilt in l955. And to get supplies (for initial building and now resupplying), they were brought by boat to the remote south arm of the lake and landed at Trail Creek. From there they went by pack train over the Thorofare Trail 16 miles to the cabin. They loaded up these horses and mules with all kinds of supplies and headed out in a long line. And one part the trail was just a ledge against the side of a mountain. It is still manned today and they use the same trail for supplying the cabin. It’s a cute little log cabin with a split rail fence around it out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. But absolutely beautiful nowhere. We gave ourselves 3 hours in the museum which wasn’t nearly enough time, but I was driving back and I didn’t want to go back in the dark because of all the critters that could be near the road at that time. We stopped for dinner at the Yellowstone Valley Inn where we camped the night before we went into Yellowstone and left there around 8:00 for the drive back. The sun was just going down behind the mountains when I hit Sylvan Pass, and wouldn’t you know the sun was right in my eyes as I came up over the pass and I literally couldn’t see a thing. Scared the crap out of me. But we made it back well before dark. Saw a herd of elk, a herd of deer, and a bison mogging down the road. People are always getting banged up or gored by the bison. When we were in the clinic the first time they said a kid was brought in because the mother posed them in front of a bison and he butted this little kid pretty badly. Another absolutely spectacular day. Probably low 80s in Cody and low 70s in the park. Supposed to be cold again tonight. Wonder if we’ll hear the wolves again? I thought there were about 11 packs of wolves in the park. There are actually 52 packs—about 460 wolves.

Golden Gate

Lillies on South Twin Lake

Fri, 7/11/08

Yellowstone NP; WY: Since Mike still not feeling so great, we thought we’d just drive the part of the Grand Loop Road between Norris and Mammoth Hot Springs, which we haven’t done yet. Another spectacular day—sunny and cool—highs only in the mid-60s. When we left it was in the mid-50s but there were people in tank tops and shorts. I had on jeans, a turtle neck and a sweatshirt. The humidity has been really low too—15-20%. This drive was another spectacular display of rugged bluffs, deep canyons, sparkling streams, beautiful water falls, and wide, lush valleys. The feature they call Golden Gate was spectacular with beautiful bluffs, obsidian creek running along, and a road that was suspended over the side of this cliff. When we got to Mammoth Hot Springs we had lunch again at the lodge there. All the lodges and hotels have great food—so far anyway. After lunch we decided to drive out to the western entrance of the park and check out West Yellowstone, MT. The road follows the Madison River which is a wide, shallow river that winds through this pretty valley. We saw several herds of elk. West Yellowstone is a really neat little town. It’s a mix of the old, the really old, and the new that’s built to look old. They have this beautiful, old stone train station in the middle of town. Not sure when it was built, but the only entrance in the 1800s was the north entrance. But the only purpose for it would be to bring people to Yellowstone. They probably had to take a stage coach from W. Yellowstone to the park. Drove back which took 2 hours. About a 9 ½ hour day.

Lake Hotel

Thu, 7/10/08

Yellowstone NP, WY: Mike feeling better this morning and it looks to be a beautiful day, so we decided to take a cruise on Yellowstone Lake. Really windy though and it was rough on the lake. Was a beautiful cruise though and a totally different perspective of the lake. Some salient points:

· The lake has 141 miles of shore line.
· The average depth is 140 feet and the deepest point is 430 feet.
· There is more thermal activity on the bottom of the lake than the rest of Yellowstone combined.
· The park is 80% forest—and 80% of those are lodge pole pine, which require fire to spread its seeds.
· The “grand loop” figure 8 road through the park covers only 6% of the park.
· The area south of Yellowstone Lake is the largest uninhabited area in the lower 48.

Before we went on the cruise we went over to Grant Village and had lunch at one of the restaurants there. Grant Village is really pretty and much newer than the other, historic areas—also much quieter and less congestion. We had a great lunch with a great view of the lake. After the cruise we went back to the campground and sat outside reading for a while. Think tomorrow we’ll take the Beartooth Scenic Byway and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway.

Wed, 7/9/08

Yellowstone NP, WY: Mike still not feeling well. So I decided to drive into Cody. I left at 10:00 and my first stop was the Holiday Inn in Cody for lunch and taking advantage of their wi-fi. Left there and tried to get my hair cut but the proprietor was out. Did the grocery shopping and then stopped and got the truck washed. Back at the campground by 4:30. Such a beautiful drive though—especially through the Shoshone National Forest. There was a traffic jam where we saw the three grizzlies in Yellowstone, so they must still be hanging around there. Thought they moved around a lot. Another beautiful day—70s here in Yellowstone, 80s in Cody. On the drive over Sylvan Pass, the guard rail was out—someone didn’t quite make the turn. Hope they didn’t go over. It is a long way down. People are in such a hurry.