Tracing the Yellowstone through Montana

We left Yellowstone and Mammoth CG headed north and east along the Yellowstone River through Montana. We stopped at Chico Hot Springs after about an hour on the road. Chico Hot Springs Resort is a historic resort featuring a natural hot spring pool. Water is funneled into a small swimming pool. From there it empties into a larger pool where cold water is mixed as well. The temperature in the first pool was just barely tolerable, the second pool is more like a typical heated pool, perhaps 90 degrees. We spent an hour or so flipping from one pool to the other and then dried off and head back down the road.

Chico Hot Springs

Our next stop was in Livingston MT. Dorcas wanted to stop at a bead shop there, and we shopped at the Radio Shack to buy a replacement connector for Dorcas' PC. There was an inviting pizza shop, Earth's Crust Pizza, in the strip mall behind the Radio Shack, so we checked it out. We were less than impressed by the buffet which was in an unlighted corner. I couldn't see what was there. There was an item on the menu board that we did not recognize, so we asked what it was. The server didn't know; not a good sign, so we left. The most exciting thing about Livingston was trying to get out of town. We had come into town on I-90 Business from the west, and thought we would continue on I-90B eastbound to return to I-90. It was not to be. We saw a big sign declaring “ROAD CLOSED” and were forced to a side street to the left. Instead of a series of detour signs, the road looped back to the west, with no instruction for the confused traveler. The detour had put us on the wrong side of the railroad tracks, and there was no way to get back to the highway. Still no “DETOUR” signs in sight. We finally wound our way through the suburbs and negotiated a railroad underpass (with whole inches to spare overhead!) and found our way back to I-90B. Unfortunately, the intersection was a very sharp angle, and we could not turn west to get back out of town the way we had come in, so we had to turn east, back toward the unfortunate detour. Then we made a series of UPS turns (right turns) and finally backtracked to I-90 on the west end of town. I don't see any point in ever going back to Livingston.

The mighty free-flowing Yellowstone

A view of the Yellowstone

Once safely back on the road we continued east down the Yellowstone River valley. We stopped in Billings at the Sam's store and bought groceries and fuel. We spent the night at the Walmart in Miles City MT after a 330 mile day.

Yellowstone Wildlife

Yellowstone is famous for its wildlife ... well, and also for its thermal features ... and for its waterfalls.  Well, its famous for a lot of things, but one is its wildlife.  We have seen a lot of interesting critters during our 2 1/2 weeks in the park.  We even got a few nice photos of some.  Unfortunately, while we saw some black bears, we didn't see a grizzly.  And we never saw a wolf.

So here is a post showing off some of my favorite wildlife photos.

Enjoy.

A bison jam

Black bear

Bull elk taken from our coach at Mammoth CG

Black bear cub on the boardwalk

Uinta (ground squirrel).  This was Matilda's favorite wildlife.

"You can't see me!"

"Dorcas! Keep your eyes on the road!"

These guys posed perfectly

Shedding his winter coat

I think I violated Rule #5 in previous post!

Taken from our coach at Bridge Bay CG

Black bear says "Hello"

Black bear says "Yum!" as he munches the clover.

Black bear says "Bye bye"

Coyote on the prowl

Apparently he's not in the mood for swans this morning

"I see you too!"

The ground squirrel got away.  Dang!

Elk hanging out at Mammoth Hot Springs

Look carefully, there is a bull moose hiding in the shadows.

Mule deer

White pelicans

Osprey on her nest

Trumpeter Swans

"If you don't back off, I'm calling the ranger!"

Yellowstone National Park - All good things must end

The Roosevelt Arch

When our stay ended at Bridge Bay, we wanted to spend more time in the park, but I didn't want to try to get a reservation. At most visitors centers they know the fill times the previous day at all of the campgrounds in the park. I had my heart set on Mammoth CG which is at the extreme northwest corner of the park. I asked a ranger at the visitor center at Canyon when Mammoth had been filling. He said “Mammoth? You want to go to Mammoth? You ever been to Mammoth?” Like why the heck would you want to go there? Well actually we have been to Mammoth CG. We spent 5 nights there in May 2011 on our way to Alaska and enjoyed it very much thank you. Mammoth is a little different. It's about 1400 feet lower elevation than those campgrounds in the interior and it is less wooded and has more sagebrush. Actually Mammoth has a lot going for it.

1. Mammoth Hot Springs is gorgeous.
   
2. You can always see elk at Mammoth. They actually have a “wildlife resource ranger” whose sole job is to move orange cones and barricades around town to keep tourists away as the resident elk cross the street and move to different parts of the village.
   
3. It is the historic entrance to Yellowstone and the location of Fort Yellowstone, where the cavalry were stationed in the early years of the park as they provided order and protected the park from poachers. It is park headquarters and just a happenin' place.
   
4. It is close to Gardiner MT, where you can buy relatively cheap fuel and groceries.
   
5. It has good Verizon cellular (Internet) service.
   
6. Mammoth Hot Springs is gorgeous.
   
   
   
   
   

Elk on the lawns

 





The campground at Mammoth generally fills later than the other first-come camp grounds, usually mid afternoon and has a lot of large pull-though sites. We felt there was little risk of not getting a site if we got there early. We left Bridge Bay about 8:00 AM and checked into Mammoth about 9:30. No problem.

Our camp at Mammoth

Elk taking their daily evening stroll through our camp

While at Mammoth we explored the northern areas of the park: Lamar Valley, Tower/Roosevelt area, Norris and Madison. We went into Gardiner a few times for fuel and groceries. We have a washer/dryer on board, but we have been without electric, water and sewer since July1, so we visited the Wash Tub to do some laundry.

You just don't see that back home

Way too close!

I wonder how these guys got here?

Gibbon Falls

Tower Falls

Yellowstone River at Tower Creek

We have been in Yellowstone for 17 nights, the last 10 at Mammoth CG. When we first got here we had planned a much shorter visit, and then we would move into Montana and spend time in Glacier National Park. However, getting a camp site on the east side of Glacier, which was where we wanted to be, was looking to be difficult. They didn't take reservations at any of those camp grounds and larger sites were limited. At some point we made the decision to skip Glacier and spend more time in Yellowstone. Once that decision was made a cloud and a burden seemed to be lifted from us, and we knew we had chosen wisely.

Mystic Falls

But now the time has come to move on. Tomorrow we must leave Yellowstone and begin working our way eastward.

Our camp at Mammoth CG

Yellowstone National Park Part II

I have been in Yellowstone National Park perhaps 6-8 times, but never in the summer. Every time I have been here in the past was before Memorial Day or after Labor Day, which has always been a great time to be here. I had heard horror stories about the traffic jams and the crowds in the summer, so I was apprehensive about going to Yellowstone at all during the month of July. Of course, we came anyway.

Tourists!  Taking up all our camping sites!

Well, our impression so far is, it ain't so bad. Sure, when a chipmunk crosses the road, traffic grinds to a halt and the camera flashes drive the poor critter into an epileptic seizure. And there can be parking issues (fist fights) at some of the pull-outs, particularly at the more popular features. But it wasn't as bad as we expected. In fact, shortly into our stay at Grant Village, I started trying to get more nights in the park. Most of the major campgrounds are by-reservation only (Madison CG being an exception). It is a risk to depend on getting a spot at the smaller first come campgrounds. First, you need to get there early in the morning, and second, most of those have smaller sites and only a very limited number of sites big enough for our rig. If you miss, you're screwed and have to drive a hundred miles to find a place outside the park. So I got on-line looking for a reservation for some days after our stay ended at Grant Village. No luck. Finally I called the reservation phone number, and a guy found us three nights at Bridge Bay CG, only 19 miles north of our current site at the other end of Yellowstone Lake. Sweet! I did tell a minor fib however. I gave the operator the correct length of our coach but, when asked, I told him we were not towing a car. How could that matter? I think this helped us get the site, but it did cause minor a problem later.

 


So, on Tuesday we packed up and moved a whopping 19 miles to Bridge Bay CG. We checked in and were assigned site A-9. At first glance A-9 seemed to be a huge pull through site,just adjacent to the pavement on the loop road. But wait a minute. What's that white line painted across the pavement half way along the length of our site? And why does it say A-10 just beyond that line? Crap, they did it to us again. That mile-long pull-through was actually two separate sites. I pulled all the way up so my bumper was even with the white line, and my front mirrors actually intruded about a foot into A-10. There was nobody currently parked in A-10, but there was some gear on the picnic table. Obviously a small van-type camper would be coming back, and it wouldn't matter that we were slightly trespassing. The reason we needed as much space as we did was because there was no place to park the car. Park rules say all wheels must be on the pavement, but not in the roadway. Well, we only had about 6' behind us to park the car. I finally did manage to get the car in diagonally between the coach, a boulder and the fiberglass site marker, with Dorcas using her new parking gestures again. It was not nearly as dramatic as our parking nightmare at Grant Village, but it was stressful all the same. About this time a 40' Tiffin arrives to park in A-10. Because we are there, he must pull forward and do a parallel parking maneuver to wiggle around a tree at the front end of his site. When he's finished there is barely enough room to walk between our two coaches. Whoever designed the site layouts at Grant Village and Bay Bridge should be fed to the bears.

Bridge Bay had no cellular service, but we did have open sky for the solar array. Unfortunately, it was overcast for most of our stay here. We spent the next few days exploring the northern Lake region, Hayden Valley and the Canyon region.

This guy was in our site just a few seconds before

Lake Hotel

Lake Hotel dining room.  A bit rich for us.

Bison in Hayden Valley

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone.  I say eddy right then go for it!

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Black bear munching the clover

What do you see?  Is it a bear?

Evidence of the fires of 1988