Monday = Mostly Montana

It was time to check out of our room at Canyon Village and begin our long eastward journey home.

We got up, packed, and loaded up the CRV, dropped off our key cards, and headed out of the park.  We had one stop to make on the way: the Virginia Cascades.  Although the view wasn't great, Debbie appreciated the opportunity to see one final waterfall in Yellowstone.

We continued our way toward the park's northern entrance in Gardiner. We caught sight of a couple elk and took time for a pull-off to take some photos.

We stopped in Gardiner to snap some pics of the Roosevelt Arch.  We stopped for a final passport stamp at the Yellowstone Forever store and grabbed breakfast at the Cowboy Grille.  Pros: great decor (guns), huge pancake, cons: slow eggs and Debbie was hangry.  (You wouldn’t like her when she’s hangry!).  We bought five gallons of over-priced gas to make it to our next destination.

On we went, heading northeast for most of the day, cutting across Montana and following the Yellowstone River.  Our path took us near beautiful snow-capped mountains, great stretches of 80 mph roadway where we were the only car in sight, and big sky country.  We stopped for lunch in Billings where we tracked down a not-very-conveniently located Chick-Fil-A.  

The next stretch was a bit nerve-wracking as I had planned to stop for gas about an hour after lunch.  The only problem was that there were no services to be found at that time!  Finally, Hysham had a nice gas station, although several miles off the highway.

We stopped at the Montana Welcome Center, which was ironic because we were leaving Montana.  Getting into North Dakota was a first for both Debbie and me.  The badlands were cropping up, and we knew we would have a chance to explore them on Tuesday for our Theodore Roosevelt National Park day.

We stopped in Dickinson for our 2-night stay.  We hit up a KFC for supper, a Walmart for supplies and a gas station to fill up.  Then we checked into our hotel and chilled for the rest of the evening.  

Another Day in Paradise

Our Sunday morning (May 31) in Yellowstone National Park went like this:

- Woke up in our room on the second floor of the Rhyolite Lodge.

- Went for breakfast at the Canyon Village cafeteria.

- Dealt with the trauma of the kitchen being out of eggs. (Apparently their shipment arrived frozen?)

- Waited for several long minutes for the French Toast to be done.

- Hit up the Grand Canyon Visitor Center and got our passport stamp.

- I toured the museum and watched the film while Debbie did some souvenir shopping.

Now that we were awake and alert, we took a drive for most of the late morning/afternoon.  First, we went to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone's Northern Rim and overlooks.

We worked our way south to the Lake Lodge area - only to discover that it was still closed. So much for our lunch plan! We decided to drive to the Fishing Bridge for lunch instead where we split a honey ham sandwich.  We got our passport stamp there and drove north.

We went to one of Jon's favorite spots in Yellowstone - the Mud Volcano Area.  There are many cool thermal features in this section of the park.

On the way back to the Grand Canyon, we saw many cars pulled over.  Debbie said, "It's just another bear."  I asked, "Is it a grizzly?"  She immediately realized it was, so we pulled over and got a good look (at a distance!)

Finishing up on our tour for the day, we did the Grand Canyon's Southern Rim and overlooks.

We took the evening off from sightseeing and Debbie did laundry in the campground after going on a scavenger hunt for quarters.  We went back to the Canyon Village cafeteria where we enjoyed tasty roast beef dinners and shared an ice cream cookie sandwich for dessert.  

We returned to our room for rest and reading and blogging.  This is our last night in Yellowstone!

Day of Adversity

It was time to wake up and check out of Old Faithful Inn.  It started off as a cold and rainy day, chilly enough for a fire in the lobby.  (Check out the Old Faithful geyser on the screen!)

We once again had breakfast and also bought some picnic items for lunch: Chicken Salad Croissant for Debbie and Turkey on Kaiser Roll for me.  We packed up our bags and loaded the car in the rain, catching one more eruption of Old Faithful (That made a total of 5 viewings for Jon and 3 for Debbie on this trip.)  

While Debbie read, I took the Old Faithful Inn tour and learned a lot of interesting facts, which I will share now so that I will be able to recall them years from now!

The Old Faithful Inn’s architect was originally from Ohio.

The materials to build the Inn all came from within about 5 miles of its location.

The Inn was built in less than a year.

The Inn had indoor plumbing, heat and electricity when it opened.

The lodgings in Yellowstone are all spaced out about 20-30 miles apart which represented a day’s stagecoach ride for the travelers who would journey from inn to inn on their tour package.

After checking out, we began our journey northward for the day, knowing that we had to reach Mammoth Hotel by 4 pm for our evening Wildlife Tour.  Our first stop was the Grand Prismatic Spring since we had to abandon it the evening before.  Unfortunately, on this "day of adversity," the weather conditions made it hard to see anything through the rain and steam!

We briefly stopped for a nostalgic memory of the Nez Perce picnic area where we had had such a great time creeking with the kids in 2008:

We visited a couple of waterfalls (Firehole Falls, which we had seen before) and Gibbon Falls (which was new, I think.)  The parking lot at Gibbon Falls became the scene of a car picnic since it was pouring rain.  It was a disaster.  A sizable chunk of Debbie's chicken salad escaped the croissant and ended up catastrophically wedged between her seat and the console.  My poor car.

I was delighted to be able to tour another new (to us) area - the Norris Geyser Basin.  This section includes some of the hottest features of the park.  One geyser was constantly erupting.  We got our passport stamp and perused the exhibits.  The weather continued to be difficult, but it was beginning to get better by this point.

We saw other sights on our way to our animal tour, including Roaring Mountain, Obsidian Cliff, Sheepeater Cliff, Rustic Falls (which we had nicknamed "Wedding Cake Falls" in '08!), and Mammoth Hot Springs.

Arriving in Mammoth, we toured the visitor center and got our passport book stamped.  Then we headed to the hotel to meet our guide for the night: Katie from Ohio.  Several others joined us for this wildlife tour in a large van which became one of the real highlights of our time at Yellowstone.  Despite this being a day of adversity, over the course of four hours we saw several black bears, an elk, a fox, peregrine falcons, bighorn sheep, pronghorn, a moose, a badger, and many bison.  Some of our best shots:

The day of adversity complete, we drove through the deepening darkness to our new room at Canyon Lodge.  More about that area tomorrow!