Blogs from Gardiner, Montana, United States, North America - page 2

Photos from this day at Yellowstone It was almost possible with our schedule to photograph the sunrise in Yellowstone and sunset in Yosemite on the same day, this one. We had to fly Snafu Airlines to Yosemite so we were lucky to make Fresno by sundown. Success this morning, however, depended only on my getting up on time and getting to the terraces in Mammoth Hot Springs without incident. The photos I got there were a big bonus; just getting there to "say" goodbye was the goal. Getting to Yosemite was also the goal; photographing the same day would have been a bonus. It was rut season for the elk, and they roam freely in and around Mammoth Hot Springs. Getting through is not as easy as you might have been thinking in the last paragraph. ... read more

We really slowed down today, mother nature saw to that. I woke to the pitter patter of rain on the roof and the sky was gray and bleak. I said hooray. I have been on a tread mill and just couldn’t stop myself. There is so much to see here and I felt that if I wasn’t out there the chance of a lifetime was missed. I have got to hear the music and smell the flowers. So we lounged around I made the second half of the oatmeal pancakes with nuts and cleaned up a bit then went to take a shower. You have to understand what a big deal showers are here. Water is scarce and the park has one campground out of 15 that has a shower. I am in a private campground ... read more

Geo: 45.0319, -110.705After getting up at 6 am, we headed to eat breakfast at the same restaurant that we had left due to its high prices. While eating at Outlaws the night before, our waitress, Stormy, told us that the restaurant had a great inexpensive breakfast buffet. After eating, we still had an hour, so we went back to the hotel for a bit. The weather was a little chilly but no rain clouds. We got geared up for the trip. Naomi wore a wet suit, but since I was going to be just going along for the ride, I wore just the life jacket. We rafted with a family of 5. It was great! Naomi and I had a great time! Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to shower and change into dry clothes. ... read more

Geo: 45.0319, -110.705We got into Gardiner a little later than I had expected, but we settled in our 1st floor room. I stayed at this Super 8 eight years ago for about $60 a night. Today, it costs $150 a night! The main reason is it is peak season for Yellowstone National Park. The room had a king bed and a couch that folded out into a queen size bed. Naomi took the couch bed since the other bed was next to the air conditioner and I need to be cold to sleep. So far Naomi has been able to withstand my need for coldness. Naomi immediately plugged herself in to her online friends or worked on her laptop while I downloaded some pics and tried to get some blogging done for about an hour. It ... read more

September 26, 2009 “Take off that Ranger hat so I can slap you across the face.” Today was somewhat disappointing….the fire in Yellowstone continues and the road to Old Faithful is closed. To see it we would have to drive around the park, the northern route, to get there. This would take three and a half hours, one way! We decided to drive north to a town called Livingston, a place Anthony Bourdain had done a show on. We were hoping to first go to Little Big Horn and hit Livingston on the way back. After driving about an hour we realized that Little Big Horn was another two hours! We went directly to Livingston instead. We visited a little restaurant named Pinky’s that Bourdain had highlighted. Donna recognized the owner right away from the show ... read more