YELLOWSTONE - GRAND JUNCTION

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Friday 8th October

Yellowstone (Wyoming) - through Utah to Grand Junction (Colorado) - 524 miles

We checked out the hotel and did a quick stop at the post office here to buy stamps for postcards. I asked for stamps at the counter and the elderly gentleman goes 'ah, scottish' yes i replied, before i could say anything else he says ' i bet you are from somewhere between Aberdeen and Inverness'. Aye i was speechless, turns out he had friends from Banchory and placed my accent easily. A nice start to the day i guess.

Well ten miles south out of Yellowstone the inevitable happened.....Snow!!!! We drove through a blizzard for about another ten miles and then it stopped as quick as it started leaving a slight covering on the hills and roadside before us. Its blooming baltic and we are both wrapped up in fleece's and coats, even in the car!!

We are lucky to see one Bear in Yellowstone but to see two is unheard of and as we turned a bend in the road a large black bear scuttled across the road in front of us and into the field beside the road.

No one else was around so we stopped the car on the road and watched him for a couple of minutes as he dissapeared into the thick woods 30 yrds or so away. Well at least we got some photo's of him and he didn't turn nasty on us otherwise we would have had too lock ourselves in the car and hope he didn't fancy ripping the windscreen wipers off or something worse!!

We carried on up and through Grand Teton which is the next national park after Yellowstone and its just as spectacular as Yellowstone for its scenery. We didn't stop anywhere in the park as we are stopping just further South at Jackson.

Jackson (pop 9000) is a town located in the Jackson Hole valley of Teton County and its well known for it's ski resorts. It has steep vertical slopes and is night-lit. More famous is the Jackson Hole ski resort which opens nearly 8 months of the year and we could see some white patches of snow as we drove by before stopping at a cafe for brunch.
We stopped at a bakery type cafe and the food was fantastic. We both had smoked salmon. Jill had an omelette whereas i had Salmon benedict. we had a couple of drinks and the bill was just over a tenner. We wouldnt be stopping for another 400 miles so best get a good feed in now. Its still awfully chilly here and were hoping it warms up as we drive into Colarado.
Walking around Jackson was weird as it honestly looks and feels european as its got a very ski resort vibe. Porches, range rovers and other expensive cars with ski racks on the roof are constantly driving past us. Saying that they have an old cowboy saloon bar and an style cinema that looks like its stuck in a timewarp.

We drove for about 200 miles and came across a place called the Fire Gorge Dam which was quite cool to see here in the middle of nowhere and also the bridge on the other side of the Dam was strange to see as it was the first sign of Man made buildings we had seen for a whiley.
We then reached Rock Springs for a fuel stop where its getting a little warmer and the scenery is changing all the time making the journey seem not so long and boring.
We then pass a little place 160 miles later called Rangely (pop 2000) and stop for a stretch of legs and some juice as its much warmer now. This area is famous for Dinosaur fossils and a lot of the roads are named after dinosaurs, i.e Brontosauraus drive, Stegosauraus road etc....yes you guessed right, we were having a right laugh at the names as all we could think of and sing was the flintstones!! 'yabbaa dabbaa doooo''
Willllllmmaaaaaa!!!! Keeping on tv theme's we also passed the turn off for Bonanza which signalled another melody.... If they think boredom on long drives make you mad, we've certainly proved it today!! 😊

We hit the Colorado Mountains and they are awesome to say the least! We stopped a good few times to admire the views and then the road became so windy that we were down to 25mph and getting dizzy. A Deer jumped out in front of us and stood at the side of the road and didn't even move as i pulled up beside him and took a few photo's. Much tamer than the scottish deer i can tell you that! We leave the mountains behind us and are now coasting through valley floors which are long and flat.

Edging nearer to Grand Junction we get stuck behind a oil tanker and its starting to get dark...Picture this...the countryside's great expanse on either side of us as far as you can see, perfect daylight to the left of us sunset and darkness to the right of us!! It was an amazing sight as by the time we reached the freeway the sun had totally set and we seen the darkness of night pass right over us in stages.

Finally we reach our destination.....Grand Junction. (pop 54,500)
9 hours of driving , 540 Miles and two sore bums!!!

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