Day 10: Leaving Wyoming, Yellowstone and staying on a ranch

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We left Lander, WY early. The promised "continental breakfast" was a couple of packs of crackers, some mushy danish and cereal packed in snack size zip log bags. No way! So what we did... we went to the grocery store across the street, bought bread, cheese, some fruit, coffee and - yes wine for the way - and hit the road again! It was still early, so we drove to one of the few rest areas along the highway. There we stopped and had a nice breakfast. In the middle of it, three cyclists said hi. We had just passed them an half hour earlier. They turned out to drive around the states. Three guys from Indiana and Ohio, two of them were travelling (cycling) togehter, they were doing a tour of 4000 miles! And I thought we drive a lot in the car! The other one joined them along the way and is cycling from the Washington, DC to Portland, OR. I tell you they are crazy. But we actually spend our whole breakfast (and their lunch) break with them, sat there for an hour and a half. They were very interesting!
Our next stop was Yellowstone National Park. It took us another 3.5 hours to get there, because it was such a long way, and then there was even road construction where we had to wait! But we made it. Here is my honest opinion about Yellowstone. Don't go there! I was so looking forward to it, but I was so disappointed! Huge national park, lot's of tourist, mainly roads, again, lot's of tourists. We stopped a the information center, and no, there's no room available. So we had no place to stay that night. Who would have expected that all lodges and all camp sites in that huge national park are full? On a Monday night? Well, we had to drive out of the park, to West Yellowstone (which is already in Montana). On the way we stopped at two sights. The Grand Prismatic Springs and the Old Faithful Geysir. The geysir was just weird, hundreds of tourists watching. I have seen geysirs before, but not with so many people. And the whole park is funny, everywhere you drive. I'm not even sure if there are hiking trails! It's way too touristy!
Since we had to leave to find accomodation, we left the park to the west into West Yellowstone, which is actually in Montana. A town with lots and lots of hotels. All were booked too. So it's only 7 pm so we decided to drive on. A couple of miles further we entered Idaho. And yet a few miles further we saw a sign for Eagle Ridge Range, took the turn and went there. We were so lucky, they had one log cabin still available, we even got a great discount because the beds were not mad, and the cabin had a hot tub. Awesome that we bought booze in the morning. Afther the long day of driving and the disappointing park, we deserved to have a few drinks in the hot tub. It was the perfect ending to a not so perfect day.
www.eagleridgeadventures.com

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