September 9, Monday, Yellowstone National Park
When Debbie and I visited Yellowstone last May, several of the roads were still closed, as were some of the visitor centers. We decided to stop off for a couple of nights on our way home from Glacier National Park and visit the areas we had missed.
On Sunday evening, we arrived in Gardiner, MT, at the north end of Yellowstone. We set up at the Yellowstone RV Park, about a mile outside the north entrance. From the campground entrance, you could see the Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance to Yellowstone. This is a small campground and our site backed up right against the Yellowstone River. We also noticed Pronghorn Antelope roaming the hills just across the river.
On Monday morning, we headed into the park and drove to Mammoth, then turned east onto the roads that had been closed back in May. I saw a side road called the Black Tail Plateau Road and thought it might be something interesting like Fire Hole Canyon that we drove in May. NOPE! It was a single lane dirt road with no way to turn around. Six miles of potholes, mud, switchbacks and hills made for an “interesting” drive. Let’s just say that it wasn’t worth the half hour it took to drive those six miles.
Our drive then took us on around the northeast portion of the park and Debbie was able to pick up her Park Passport stamps for the visitor centers that weren’t open on our other visit to the park. We also stopped at several overlooks along the way. There was rain off and on throughout the day and the temperature ranged from 42 to 50 degrees, even when the sun did come out.
September 10, Tuesday, travel day
One of Debbie’s wishes for the Yellowstone stop was to finally see some elk and moose with antlers. We saw both back in May, but it was too early in the year for antlers. We saw none on Monday either, to her disappointment. We got all hooked up and started out of the campground and as we neared the highway, she got all excited and started grabbing for her phone. To our surprise, there was a bull elk standing right in front of us. She took pictures with her phone as I reached for my camera from the back seat. We both took several pictures of both the bull and several females that were standing on the other side of the highway.
With one of her two animal viewing goals reached, we drove on down to our next stop; an overnight stay in Bar Nunn, WY, just outside of Casper. Wednesday continues our dash home via Pueblo, CO and Amarillo, TX, arriving home on Friday the 13th.
LyndDebTravel 