Sunday, September 16, 2012

Yellowstone day 2

There's very little access here (phone or internet), so my posts may be a bit sporadic!
*****

We woke up surprisingly late, and I was the first up at 7:30 (of course, it was 6:30 Phoenix time!) I got ready and took a walk down the main drag in Red Lodge, which took maybe 10 minutes stopping to take pictures. Very quaint and touristy. I went back to the Pollard for our breakfast, then we headed out a short while later.

We stopped by the store to get some snacks and food to eat mid-day so we could be out in Yellowstone all day, then start to drive to the Beartooth Highway. Some have called it the most beautiful highway in the country, and whoever says this really knows their stuff! I took a ton of pictures, but they don’t do the views justice. Very quickly you climb and much of the ride was at 10 or 11k feet. The aspens at the lower levels were already starting to turn shades of gold. Then they open to the pines, which litter the countryside. Fires in recent years left bare patches with either downed trees or bare trees in silent forests.

The sprinkling of early fall gold among this gorgeous landscape was amazing to see. The mountains seem to extend to the heavens, almost like in Zion but instead of shades of rust and browns, they are green and gold. There were lookout points and vistas to stop at along the way, and we stopped in one that actually had a view of Red Lodge, the town we just left. There are several lakes around as well, so the landscape takes on these incredible shades of gold, pine green, tan and brown, and a deep bluish turquoise with patches of white snow.

We passed an amazing lookout area and stopped to see the ski pull. Insane people want to ski the Beartooth, and they ski down towards one of the largest lakes, then can get pulled back up. It was an immediate drop and quite amazing to think of anyone being crazy enough to try to ski down it. But they apparently do. There are narrow orange poles guiding the path of the road, so snow plows can see where the narrow windy roads are in the deep winter. It’s amazing to think of the snow going at least four feet high, and heavy plows going down these narrow paths through the mountains.  We saw a huge patch of snow by one of the mountain lakes, and the contrast of color was breathtaking. This is truly beautiful country in Montana.

We saw Beartooth Butte and Beartooth Lake, and stopped for a snack. A gal dipped her toes in the lake and said the water was warmer than where she was from, in Alaska. Needless to say, we kept our toes dry. :o) It was a gorgeous view and we stayed for a while before heading back on the road.

Quote #1 of the day (Carolyn):  If I was a bear, I’d live here. It’s the perfect place. Well, except for all these damned people!

We next were driving towards the Pilot and The Index. The pilot is a very distinctive mountain formation in a very tight spire, and the pilot, next to it, is pretty distinctive too. Not pointed and not a butte, but an interesting shape. We spent a while weaving down the road viewing it in every direction, then we hit Cooke City, a very small picturesque town built from a prospecting stop. It had a quaint old hotel, general store and other similar places. I stopped at a place to try huckleberry ice cream.

The weather is gorgeous and so much warmer than we expected. The weather reports showed 50-60 during the day, and the 30s and 20s at night. It hit the mid-70s, though varied depending upon our elevation. It was quite a nice treat. We stopped in the next town, called Silver Lake, to see this old quaint hotel that one of our crew who used to live in Montana had been to. It looked like it hadn’t been operation for quite some time, but the architecture was quite impressive. It was built like a very grand log cabin.

We stopped at one more place before Yellowstone park, and saw how Yellowstone got its name. The sides of this cliff that led down to the water (The Yellowstone River) were a bright golden yellow. We parked and hiked a short bit to view the Upper Waterfall. It wasn’t very large this time of year, but still beautiful. One of the gals stopped in the store and bought a bottle of the Moose Drool Ale that I found.

Quote of the day #2: Oh look! This door holds a beer bottle!

We crossed into Wyoming for a bit then back into Montana. While most of the park is in Wyoming, the northeast entrance is in Montana. We passed the gate and quickly re-entered Wyoming. Within ten minutes we saw our first buffalo lying not too far from the road. Five minutes later, in Lamar Valley, we saw a herd of buffalo by a stream, and on the other side of the road, a group of six antelope. It was amazing. The buffalo were playing by the water and some were napping.

We were compelled to sing (a quite lovely rendition) of Home on the Range, laughing through it. But this land does it to you. I’ve seen gorgeous parts of the United States, but this area is so expansive, and so diverse. It really takes your breath away. Less than a minute of driving later we saw a herd of hundreds of buffalo. We stopped to look at them, and picked some sagebrush which smelled wonderful. Some areas are taller than we are!

We got to an area where there was at least a hundred people stopped, and a park ranger guiding some traffic. Apparently there was a coyote not far feeding on an antelope carcass. We were able to see it in binoculars, and within a few minutes, the coyote grabbed off a chunk, and ran off across the road.  We crossed over the Yellowstone river, which was gorgeous.

There was evidence of a former fire through a good bit of the park, from back in the late 80s. It was amazing how many of the pine trees still stood, without any needles. Sections of the pine forest were made up of these bare trees, though there were a lot of dead trees blown over by the wind. We also saw smoke in the distance, which appeared to be a fire in the park. Apparently there is a large fire just outside of Jackson Hole which is now contained but not out, so we were told that we may not be able to see the Grand Tetons! Hopefully in three days the fire will dissipate so we can. It was smoky at certain parts of the trip as well, evidence of the fires still burning.

We went driving through some sulfur pits, and you could smell the odor. Steam was rising all around. I asked the gal who used to live around here which park she likes better, Yellowstone or Glacier. After a moment’s thought, she said Yellowstone, as the landscape is so diverse. Then..

Quote of the day #3: It probably smells better, too!

We arrived at Yellowstone lake and pulled up to the Yellowstone Hotel. We tried to get a room in the hotel but they were booked up, amazingly, given that this is off season. So we kept our rooms in the cabins, which turned out fine. We had a snack and a drink and then headed to the hotel restaurant for dinner. It was good and the service was good too, but a little overpriced we all thought.

There is little internet service and phone service in the park. So, I’m writing this up and hoping to find a connection tomorrow. My posts may be sporadic, but I will continue writing and will post when I can.

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