Sunday, July 28, 2024
Off to Yellowstone
We took our time this morning because we knew we only had 88 miles to go and were not sure what time check-in was. But Joe got up early so we were on the road, fed and fueled, by 9:40. We knew we had our pretty drive again so we were up for that. Traffic was pretty heavy on 191 this morning. It was moving about 50 miles an hour until we got past the turnoff to Big Sky, then it picked up a bit. Joe said it was a lot of driving, even though not many miles, because it was 2-lane, with lots of curves, up and down hill, and traffic. He was tired.
I told myself I wasn't going to take any pictures of the drive since I had done that yesterday, but . . .
Here's the zip line. Looks like there is a crowd waiting for that.
We reached the first Yellowstone boundary about 11 o’clock on the highway. We got to our campground about 11:30, and our site was empty so we got pulled in. The site was short, but Joe got it backed in and off the road. But we drove up to the camp host before we set up to see if anything else was available, and to see if there was a possibility of moving over on Tuesday to a first-come/first-serve site. She told us to drive through the campground looking for sites that might become available on Tuesday and make a list of ones that we could use. The hostess said she would keep an eye out and if something became available, she would notify us. Our reservations are only for two nights with electricity here, so in order to stay longer, we will have to move. All the other electric ones are reserved but we might be able to move into a first-come/first-serve dry camping (no electricity) on Tuesday.
The campground, Baker's Hole in Gallatin National Forest, is very nice. We stayed here several years ago with Jeff and Brenda. But it only has a few electric sites, which is too bad. No other hookups.
We went into West Yellowstone for dinner about 4 o’clock. Had a nice lunch/dinner at Outpost. Shortly after we got seated, it started absolutely pouring. There was a table of 6 motorcycle guys, and when they heard someone say that it was pouring, they all raced out because they left their helmets upside down on their bikes. Unfortunately, it was too late. The helmets all got wet .
Once inside the park, we crossed the state line into Wyoming at 4:50, so the entrance is barely in Montana.
15 minutes later, we saw our first elk a cow sleeping in the grass near the road. We drove on, and when we went around the corner, a buffalo was walking in the road, holding up traffic. He moseyed over to the grass and into the trees. We got past him and pulled into the turnout and watched him for a while. He had some itches and just kept rubbing against a small tree.
We finally drove on and got to the intersection at Madison, and headed north to Norris. We took the Grand Loop Road which covers the northwest corner of the park to the middle, including Canyon Village, Tower-Roosevelt, Mammoth Hot Springs, and back to Norris, then Madison. It turned out to be 134 miles. Joe said "you know, anywhere we drive in this park, it's always at least 100 miles." Again, he was right.
We saw our first wolf, but not very good. He was laying down in the grass near the road, but there were lots of cars parked there. By the time we got turned around, he had gotten up and we just caught a glimpse of him moving into the trees.
The next time we saw a group of people stopped along the road, Joe looked back and said it was a deer or maybe a cow elk. I couldn’t even see it and there was no place to stop.
We had a little rain shower and it started getting dark on us about 7:30. We were not yet to Mammoth in our loop so we had several miles to go. We have seen 3 lone buffalo, after the one with the itch, and we’ve seen three cow elk by now. Plus the wolf that we barely saw. This elk crossed the road right in front of us.
After we got through Mammoth and headed south, we came upon four cow elk, real close to the road. Just a little further, Joe spotted a whole herd, but they were a little further and now it’s pouring down rain so we didn’t get a picture. He thought there was probably 40 or 50, probably all cows again.
By this time, we had passed several geysers and steaming pools of water. We had seen them all before, so we didn't stop.
It cleared off a little bit after the rain storm so we were able to have visibility for a little bit longer, although it continued to rain off and on. We got to the turn off at the Madison River about 8:40, still a little bit of daylight. This is usually where the action is. We’ll see if the wildlife are at Madison River and causing a traffic jam tonight or if we’re late enough to clear it. This is a 14 mile stretch to get to West Yellowstone and it can take an hour and a half sometimes if there’s lots of traffic pulled over watching the elk or the Buffalo. Well, there was no traffic jam, but we did see two elk -- cow and a calf - - so we pulled into one of the turnouts, but it was getting pretty dark. In the clearing where the river narrowed and turned, there were a few more elk scattered around. We never found any buffalo herds today, but we did find a herd of elk.
We stopped back in West Yellowstone for a quick bite. We had skipped lunch and our 4:00 meal was several hours ago. We just went into McDonalds, which was a zoo. I think maybe a bus had unloaded, or the Cinemax just got out. Business was certainly booming.
We found our way back to the campground without incident, although we were on alert because they have signs about buffalo roaming the highway. Our campground host had told us there had been a grizzly roaming around in the campground just a couple day ago, also a moose and her baby had been down by the river, which is just behind the campground. Also a lot of foxes in the campground. But we saw nothing.
It was a long day. We have to figure out how to manage our time better so we aren't on these long drives, but I think every day here will be over 100 miles. We just need to get started earlier, and make more stops. Looking forward to it.
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