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Published: August 14th 2011
Bear Tooth Mountain
The one at the backYellowstone is a very popular destination so, at this time of the year particularly, you would expect it to be mega busy. And it was definitely that. A visit to Yellowstone seems almost to be a rite of passage for many people in this country. Everyone wants to go or has been. Add a high level of domestic tourism to the very considerable interest of foreign tourists in the world's first national park and one of the world's largest active volcanoes, together with a relatively short visiting season, and you have a recipe for crowds and people pressure. We would normally avoid a place at a time of high pressure, but it made sense for us to travel from Glacier down to Yellowstone at this point of our trip and, later on, it will not be possible. We were, however, a little uneasy about the trip. Crowds and high expectations can lead to disappointment.
It took us a little longer than we had planned to make the trip from Glacier-Waterton National Park down to Yellowstone. First, we needed to sort out some gear and stock up on provisions. Missoula was the selected place for that. A city and the largest
Hot water is not good for everything
in the Norris Geyser Field, Yellowstone NP in Montana I believe, but still not especially large. Some statistics we read said that Montana has a concentration of 6.5 humans per square mile and 18 cows per square mile. Missoula was certainly large enough, though, to handle our needs. We were able to move on down the road and overnight in Butte after travelling on the Interstate for a while. An early stop there was necessitated by the desire for a laundry and some wifi, both of which are a little hard to find in the parks.
Having heard that most sites in Yellowstone would be full by 11.00am, we decided to find a place outside the Park and go in early the next day. Our plan had been to enter from the North East entrance – because we wanted to travel along the Beartooth Highway – but the internet indicated that there would be no available accommodation at Cooke City near that entrance, so we aimed for the North Entrance. Gardiner, the town there, seemed to have a lot of accomodation options. It did, but they were all full by 1.00pm when we arrived. Just by chance, on the trip down to Gardiner, we had heard
that Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett would be in concert in Billings the next night. Always flexible, we turned around and headed back up towards the Interstate and Billings.
Success in obtaining a couple of tickets to see Willie and Lyle put us in a good frame of mind. Then we had further success in booking a campsite in Yellowstone for a couple of nights. Billings is also just down the road – about 60 miles I think – from the Little Bighorn National Monument. I was keen to see it although I will admit that, after traipsing all over Culloden in Scotland in sleet and a howling gale, the decision to vist another battlefield was not enthusiastically unanimous. But then going into Yellowstone from Billings meant that a trip down the Beartooth Highway would be the most direct route. So we had a plan. And this one worked out beautifully.
The Little Bighorn is a US National Monument. It used to be known as Custer's Last Stand but, over time, the fact that the other side participating in this affair were also US citizens became clear and the name was changed. Most people know the basic story.
The Indian Memorial
Little Bighorn National Monument Some significant groups – including the Lakota (Sioux), Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho – had become disillusioned with the level of adherence to a treaty signed at Laramie some years previoulsy and had left their reservations. The US Army was sent to sort them out and get them back onto their allocated places. Lt Col George Armstrong Custer, with a number of companies under his control, came across an encampment which is now estimated to have been about 8,500 people. At least 2,000 of these people were fighters. By the time the battle was properly joined Custer had 231 men under his direct command and, facing the major force of the Indian fighters, was grossly outnumbered. He died and lost all men under his command. The Indians that day were led by men such as Crazy Horse and Gall. Sitting Bull was the main leader and the inspiration, but he took no direct part in the fight. The Indians lost about 45 men.
The US Government of the day tried to set Custer up as a hero but opinion on that now is, at best, mixed. In 1993 the name of the monument was changed and the memorial to Custer
and his men was joined by 'The Indian Memorial', a memorial to the tribes that had participated and lost men. The neatest, simplest summary of the day came, in my opinon, from Sitting Bull quoted in 1881, “They attacked our village and we killed them all. What would you do if your home was attacked? You would stand up as a brave man and defend it.”
I am not completely convinced that there is a great deal that would attract you to Billings, the state capital of Montana, as a tourist but we had a nice camp at the KOA Kampground and Willie and Lyle exceeded our expectations. I should say that those expectations weren't terribly high. Willie is getting on just that touch, at almost 80, and the effect of some of his youthful diversions must have had some affect. Lyle is an intelligent sort of bloke, perhaps with just a tad of OCD and he can become a little intense. But they are both people whose music we have enjoyed and so we gave them a go. The show was in the Alberta Bair Theatre in downtown Billings. The faithful and their mates were all there along
with others who seemed to have come primarily for the beer. The latter spent much of the show heading back and forth to the bars carrying loads of beer in plastic containers. While they were noisy and annoying at times they didn't really detract from a great show.
Lyle had his 'Large Band'. Fourteen musicians - a steel guitar, 2 on percussion, 4 back up singers, violin, bass, bass guitar, lead, rythym, mandolin, piano, dobro plus Lyle who also had a guitar, as well as Micky Raphael from Willie's band who joined for a few songs. They were all excellent and provided a high class performance. Francine Reeves, one of the back up singers, was great in her one solo. She could have had more. There are times when Lyle becomes just a little too 'lounge-y' on his records but this night it was country with a heavy dose of blues and we enjoyed it. The attention to detail and to getting the sound just right came through with the goods.
Willie had just 4 in his 'Family' band. Micky Raphael on harmonica, the famous Paul (English) of 'Me and Paul' fame as drummer until he hobbled off
Ahh ... that's good
The blue patch is our tent – he had recently had a stroke – a bloke on bass whose name I didn't catch but he spent most of the time with his back to the audience, and sister Bobbie, who is 2 years older than brother Willie and who was excellent on piano. Willie did the rest. His voice was strong and his guitar work was very, very good. A great night. The audience knew the performers of course and, especially, Willie. They were noisy, knowledgeable and appreciative and might even have been able to keep us entertained without the music.
Highway 212, the Beartooth Highway, gets wraps as one of the best drives in the USA. It lived up to the hype and we were very pleased that we had the opportunity to drive along it. It took us up through Shoshone National Forest country and over a very high pass. It rivals the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park. The drive time was extended substantially by the constant need to pull off and take photos. Well worth the trip and we will now pay a lot of attention to other roads that receive such recommendations.
Once we made it
to Yellowstone we had a drive of about 70 miles to our booked camp site at Bridge Bay. It took us 4 hours. There were some bison related photo stops but there was also an accident – idiot biker with no helmet who fell off his machine off the road and down a hill – and some roadworks, but the main reason for the delay was that many, many people needed to stop for every bison. There are thousands of the animals and, dare I say it, after a couple of hundred they start to look very similar, but stop they did, in the middle of the road, and thus everyone else stopped as well.
At first, we weren't as impressed with Yellowstone as we thought would be the case. Our recent experience of the spectacle of Glacier and then the Beartooth Highway had Yellowstone coming up a little short on the spectacle stakes. We found that, with Yellowstone, you do get a lot more out of it when you get into it a bit. Appreciate that it is based on a massive volcano that is bubbling away all of the time and you do start to look beyond
the crowds and the animal jams. The 'Old Faithful' geyser discharged 15 minutes earlier than predicted, neatly fitting in with the information that was provided in the excellent vistors center that told us that nothing is certain in this place. Wander around the Norris Geyser Field of bubbling ground and read the very good information provided at the visitors centres and it is quite possible to start to wonder what will happen if this place ever goes up. Is the movie true? Wouldn't that liven things up! We are now able to debate the merits of geysers like Old Faithful and the Norris geysers which are probably better. Oh, and just quietly, the entire smoking bubbling field is more impressive than you will find in Ethiopia, New Zealand or Bolivia.
A lot of people come here for the animals. We enjoyed those we but for us they were a bonus. We have been lucky enough to see most of the animals they have here in the wild in the past. It did give us a bit of a charge though to have a large bison bull wander quietly into our camp late in the arvo as we were having
a beer. He paid no attention to us whatsoever. Just had a roll in his favourite spot, had a little camp with us and, after a nice friendly visit, stood up, shook himself and walked off to give some other campers their thrill.
As in Glacier NP, the rangers here do an excellent job. We took advantage of the opportunity to attend presentations. The one on corvids provided all you might want to know about ravens, magpies (not the Australian kind), crows, jays and their family. Very well done and we are now expert, happily displaying our knowledge to each other as we motor through the landscape. The presentation on grizzly bears was also good but it did tend to repeat a lot of what we had previously heard. Perhaps that is because the fact that they can kill you and eat you means that studying up on bears is a lot more urgent than working out how to tell a crow from a raven.
The run through the Grand Teton National Park was a nice drive and it is clear that this Park offers some lovely camping, fishing and trekking opportunities. I am not sure that it
offers more than Yellowstone in terms of interest but it would be a beautiful place to spend time. We motored down out of the parks into lower Wyoming and then into Idaho. We had taken a decision to stay there and move on into Utah next day.
It would have been relaxing and interesting to stay on in the parks for a couple of weeks – they do deserve at least that long – but one excellent reason for leaving was the chance to stay in a camping area with showers. It is a little hard to understand why you would go to the trouble to put in flushing toilets – flushing toilets no less – and not be able to hang a couple of nozzles up somewhere so that a few people might have a bit of a bogey. They wouldn't necessarily need to be warm. Even a cold shower would do the job but we haven't struck a park with a shower so far. We live in hope.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Greetings Dave and Pat
Loved your roadside Cafe....we do that all the time when we are road tripping. Another excellent blog and adventure. We like Glacier the best. So jealous that you got to see Willie and Lyle. We saw Lyle about two months ago in an acoustic performance with John Hiatt. Willie is heading this way soon so maybe we can get tickets. I've seen him 4 or 5 times. Wish you had a bit more time in some of the places you've seen but so glad you are seeing all that you are seeing. I am looking forward to hearing your impressions of the Rocky Mountains and Colorado. Glad the tent is working well. We Americans do love to look at the wildlife from the car even if we've seen them 42 times in the past hour. Happy travels