Yellowstone National Park

We picked a good day to come to Yellowstone National Park. We got 2 campsites next to each other at the first campground we came to! This is the view from our RV.

We were just l/4 of a mile to the little town where the elk just “hang out.”

And the visitor's center, where we decided to have some fun.

As soon as we settled in and ate lunch, we headed out for a motorcycle ride to Old Faithful. We encountered such a difference in terrain! We got to “Old Faithful” just in time to see it explode. It goes off every 92 minutes. As it was shooting up, the wind shifted and guess what. Right towards us! Stinky sulfer water!!!! Not to mention all the expensive cameras people were trying to protect.

We spent a week in Yellowstone National Park. Bobby’s brother, Harry, and his wife, Theresa, joined us. They left home the end of April and were hoping to get to Alaska this summer, but that didn’t happen, so they joined us in Yellowstone and we’ll travel together to Sturgis, South Dakota. They traveled by motorcycle pulling their tent camper. CHECK IT OUT!

There was so much to do there and A LOT of motorcycle rides! There was a lot of construction on our ride to the lodge outside the north east part of the park. They had only one lane open, so we had to wait for an escort up the mountain. On our way back, we lucked out and were just behind one of the dump trucks so we didn’t have to wait to come back.

As we drove thru Yellowstone, we saw a lot of fire devestation, and it seemed really sad. But then we saw a film at one of the visitor centers that explained forests need fire so that the pine cone can release the seed to grow a new tree, so to some degree, fires are good. I have to agree with Bill’s cousin,Gail, it just does not have the “grandeur” of Glacier National Park.

Driving around Yellowstone, I think we hit every melting pot and geyser there was to see. We felt like we were on the moon. One day Bobby brought his “laser gun” as we called it, but it is a laser gun that detects heat temperatures. We found a “geyser pool” that was 179 degrees!
Bill bought a book entitled “Death in Yellowstone” Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park by Lee H. Whittlessey and as we walked through these the “moon like terrain” he told us of the stories he read in the book about how they fell into these “hot pots”accidentally or on purpose and how quickly they died, in excruciating pain……

But there sure were a lot of animals around, much more than we saw in Glacier. Bill found plenty of trees claws by bears.

And lets not forget all the Bison! Like this one that decided to cross the road in front of cars. The picture below, left was taken at Mud Volcano. Bison’s (or buffalo) were EVERYWHERE!!!!! We walked up through the pathway to find some guy making faces at the bison. The bison just looked at him and stood his ground, until some guy was coming back down the hill & he hissed him away. I have to say that guy had NERVE! He said he was a cattle rancher. He was the bison whisperer. So we got to go up the hill and while up there, a few bisons on the other side of the “melting pot” decided to fight. I got that on video.

Then a few more bisons were joining into the act, so we decided it was time to go. Walking around the walkway, we came across bisons on both sides that did not want us in that area, so we turned around to go back the way we came. As you can see in the picture below (Bobby waiting out the bison) we were stuck! They just dared us to cross their path! IT WAS VERY SCARY! Especially with Bill telling us about all the bison gordings! We also knew that the bisons could outlast us because from our rides, we found they stayed in certain areas for a LONG time! We did eventually decided to continue on the path to see if the other bisons had left, which they did. Thank goodness or we would probably have been stuck until the evening when they decided to retreat!

Now we were on our way to Cody, Wyoming!

Glacier National Park

Our drive to Glacier National Park was just a scenic as every other day.

We almost stopped here to camp for the night, but there was too much traffic, so we moved on to a quieter spot alongside a lake.
We arrived in Glacier National Park on Friday, July 17th and got 2 beautiful campsites right in the park! The first couple of days we spent with Bill’s cousin, Gail and her wonderful friend, Dan. Gail prepared a really good dinner, but the best was the huckleberry pie! mmmm-mmmmm good! Her sons Steven and Eric stopped by to see us. We were surprised to see that Steven has grown to be the tallest at 6’4”. Dan invited us to his house on Flathead Lake. It was SPECTACULAR! He has a very cute house on the property where he grew up. We went for a ride in his boat around the lake and saw some fabulous houses. One of the houses being constructed is owned by the “Motts” family; another house had an interesting cable leading from the water to the house; and another had a cool sliding board from the house on the hill into the lake.

We had a wonderful dinner outside and watched the sailboat race as the sun went down (which is about 10 p.m.in this area!)..

Glacier National Park has 37 named glaciers and 175 mountains, including 6 with elevations of more than 10,000 feet. The Continental Divide runs through the park for 106 miles.

Bill and Bobby aren’t much for hiking, so we did the small walking trail, which is wheelchair accessible, at Avalanche Creek. That’s where Bill became a tree hugger.

Marcia and I took the opportunity to jump inside a tree.

And then before it was all over, the three of us became tree huggers.

While walking through the path, we spotted a deer. They are not to afraid of people as you can see how close I could get to him.

Further in our trip we spotted a deer along the walking path who really wasn’t afraid of anyone. I caught some video of it which is unbelieveable how he just meandered away from the crowd of people taking his picture.
We spent a few days on motorcycle rides while at the Park. The more than 75 year old“Going To The Sun Road” was more than spectacular.

As we drove through the Park, we saw a lot of dead trees caused by a fire 20 years ago. It’s very sad to see how long it takes to replenish itself.
We also came upon the area where they had an avalanche this past year. It’s very sad to see how long it takes the trees to replenish themselves after a devestation.
Glacier’s Weeping Wall is a popular sight on this road.
Just past the wall is a beautiful waterfall that goes under the road and continues down the mountain. At the road level was what I called an igloo.

There were so many waterfalls along the way and I think we stopped at each one, thinking each one was more spectacular than the other.

We crossed over the Continental Divide at “Logan’s Pass.” At the Visitor’s Center, there was a mold of a bear paw. Look at the comparison of my hand!

It was amazing to see the difference in the landscape from the west side to the east side.

We ended our ride at Many Glacier where we rested on the deck of the Many Glacier Hotel (built in 1915) overlooking a beautiful lake.
Marcia and I were going to take the 5 mile hike to see the glacier, but once we sat down in those comfortable chairs on the back deck and took in the beautiful scenery, it was difficult to get motivated to move elsewhere.