Day One - Idaho Falls April 30, 2018

Left Boise this morning  in bright blue skies, a gorgeous spring day. By the time we got to Idaho Falls, it was 40 and raining!

There are several reasons for this 9 day road trip:

• Its time for a road trip
• Yellowstone is always fun the spring; lots of baby animals to see and no crowds
• Wanted to see Mt Rushmore
• Scoping out the site of our summer 2019 anniversary spectacular

This trip will take us to Mammoth Hot Springs hotel for three days; then across Montana to Medora (one of my favorite places); then south to the Black Hills, Badlands and Mt Rushmore; then back through Yellowstone from the East Entrance (although we may have to go around if the road isn't 

plowed yet).

For dinner tonight we went to the Snow Eagle Brewery and Grill, next to our hotel. Very good! This odd hotel is quite old and is a joint Quality Inn/Rodeway operation. They seem to be upgrading and rebranding. Its ok. The Snake River and the IF Falls is right across the street - lots of water in the spring run-off. 

(Note: there are a total of ten posts to this blog. In order to make the appear first to last, I have to "trick" the thing and date them backwards. So, if you get to where there are no more posts, click on "older posts" to continue)

Day Two - Idaho Falls to Mammoth Hot Springs

Tuesday May 1, 2018 Idaho Falls to Mammoth Hot Springs

Weather was off and on today – rain showers, snow, a little sun, temperature in the 30s and 40s. The hotel in Idaho Falls is really weird. The “tower” is a Quality Inn while the low slung building next door is an old Roadway. Its really old – they should either rehab it or tear it down. However, the room was fine. But overall not recommended.

From IF we headed north on Rt 20 to West Yellowstone. Every time I make that trip I can’t help but notice that from Pocatello to about Ashton (and that’s a long way) its one big, long junk yard…..not pretty. Once you pass Ashton you get into the Henry’s Lake area which is very rural and great fishing country.

West Yellowstone, even though we’re in the shoulder season, was looking good! This place is really hoppin’ in the summer. Here, we had a choice to make – head north to Bozeman (a route we had not taken before) or take the shorter route through the park. Since the weather was crappy, we opted for the longer route. Turned out to be a good choice! We came across Big Sky, totally unknown to us, but apparently well known to people with lots of money! This resort own reminds one of Ketchum, Sun Valley. Everything is new and there’s lot of new construction; condos, 5 star hotel, etc. It’s the home of Lone Mountain Ski Resort and Golf Club. Very ritzy! Lunch at the Hungry Moose Deli – very good!   (Big Sky was the dream of famous newscaster Chet Huntley in the early '70s. He never lived to see it)

From Big Sky, we continued north to Bozeman. Now there’s a good looking city! Lots of new stuff in the ‘burbs and the downtown appears to be vibrant -  didn’t notice any empty storefronts. From Bozeman, went east on the interstate for 20 miles or so to Livingston, then turned south to Gardiner.  Rt 89 is a beautiful stretch of road. All the cattle and horse ranches appeared to be quite prosperous – no junk here.

We arrived in Mammoth Hot Springs round 5:00. Then it started to snow! It snowed quite heavily for the next couple of hours, sticking to the grass. After we got settled in our room, we went down to the lounge for a drink, enjoying a talented guy at the piano. Then across the street to the dining room for an excellent meal – bison burger and chicken thighs!

We’ll have two full days to explore the park. Not all of it is open yet but we can go to Lamar Valley in one direction and Old Faithful in the other. We’ll see what the weather brings in the morning - its supposed to improve!

Big Sky

Lunch at Big Sky

Downtown Bozeman

The Bozeman

Gas is 50 cents  less than at home

They're everywhere!

Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel

Th Mammoth hotel "Map Room"

The Map room - its made of wood - 1937

Mammoth Dining room

Day three - Yellowstone

Wednesday May 2 2018

Awoke to clearing skies, although an inch or so of snow on the ground, and a wonderful breakfast in the hotel dining room. Today’s adventure took us all the way out to Cooke City, through Tower Junction and Hayden Valley. An excellent day for wildlife! We saw buffalo, elk, deer, prairie dogs, osprey, trumpeter swans, coyote, blue birds, yellow bellied marmot, big horn sheep (both rams and ewes), and pronghorn sheep. The only animal we didn’t see was a bear. (We stopped with a crowd of bear watchers on the road who assured us that the black mass under that tree was a bear. We couldn’t confirm it so we aren’t counting it).

The weather cleared nicely today. Mostly sunny, temps in the upper 40s. Spectacular views in every direction. Great dinner in the hotel; two different dishes using elk. After dinner saw a slide show about a Yellowstone trip in 1902 by some folks from Albany NY

 While we’re here we made reservations for cabins for our 2019 extravaganza.

Tomorrow we’ll head down to the geysers and Old Faithful area.

Pronghorn

Osprey

Big Horn Rams

Coyote

Big Horn Ewe

Yellow Bellied Marmot

Add caption

Typical

Cabins at Roosevelt

Cooke City- end of the road until summer

Blacktail trail

Right behind the Mammoth hotel

Mammoth hotel and cabin complex

Mammoth Cabins

Beautiful lichen

Day Four - Yellowstone

Thursday May 3 2018 The thermals down to Old Faithful

While yesterday’s trip was all about wildlife, today was about thermal activity. Amazing how these two areas of the park can be so different! We drove all the way down to Old Faithful, figuring we’d hit all the “hot spots” on the way back. At OF we checked out the visitor center and walked around the complex a bit, just in time to see OF go off at about noon. (As many times as I’ve seen it, it doesn’t have the excitement it used to have!) There were thousands of Asians on their tour buses to see the event – people come from all over the world to see this. They are annoying – loud, always taking pictures of the oddest things, lots of selfies. We wonder, what do they do with all these pictures when they get home? A favorite photo was of all the people taking shots of OF on their cell phones.

Leaving Old Faithful, our first stop was  Midway Geyser Basin. This is our favorite place in the park, The Grand Prismatic is always spectacular! Such colors!  (We would learn the next day that the Park Service just built ann overlook for the Grand Prismatic - a trail by the Fairy Falls trailhead. Be sure to look for that ext time!)

Next stop was the Lower Geyser Basin and the Fountain Paint Pots with its bubbling vanilla or chocolate colors…..blurp, blurp! The boardwalk around this area features some very active “thermals”. 

Time was short so we decided not to check out the Yellowstone Falls area. We did stop at Norris Geyser Basin but the trail down was long and steep so we opted not to. You do get a good view from the top!

We returned to Mammoth Hotel about 5:30. Sam headed to the room for a power nap, while I hiked all the way to the top of the Terraces. Spectacular features but really tough on these old knees!

Another great dinner at the hotel dining room (there are no other options, unless you wanted to drive down to Gardiner). This place seemed a lot busier than yesterday. How will it be in the summer?

Another sunny day, a bit warmer with the temps in the lower 50s. Only wildlife sighting today was a Sand Hill Cane.

Leaving tomorrow, heading to Miles City, Montana. Sorry to leave Yellowstone. A great place indeed!!

(When you get to the end of the day four post, click on "older posts" to continue.)

Sand Hill Crane

Yellowstone Inn

Watching Old Faithful

Mostly Asians!

Midway Geyser Basin 

Grand Prismatic

Grand Prismatic

Norris

The Golden Gate

Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces

Miles of boardwalks, thousands of steps