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After a day's worth of driving we were still not close to Yellowstone National Park. (Day 1 was from Albuquerque to SLC) Salt Lake City to Idaho Falls, ID was the next stretch. We considered taking some side trips to see the local claims to fame, but in the end we just decided to hunker down and get there. Not the most exciting drive in the world. We drove by Preston, ID, home to Napoleon Dynamite. We heard the gift shops are all dedicated to the quarky red head. The falls at Idaho Falls were frozen over so it made for some good picture taking moments with the frozen water and ducks/ geese slip-sliding around on the ice. We ate at Brownstone, a local microbrewery/restaurant and had some decent pub food. Just outside Idaho Falls we got our first and only view of the majestic Grand Tetons from far far away. A majestic mountain range that hopefully one day we will get to see/ discover/ experience. The Targhee National Forest was a breath-taking drive I would do again in a heart-beat. It was simply stunning. Hundreds of Christmas trees lined the roads all covered in snow. Winter-wonderland does not start to
Idaho
On our way to Yellowstone!! Christmas tree anyone?describe it. I think we were literally driving with our mouths hanging open and staring in amazement. Also - just a friendly tip. There may be times where the road actually crosses into Yellowstone. GO THE SPEED LIMIT! Cops are ready to pounce!
We booked a place in Livingston, MT (about an hour north of Yellowstone) since it is virtually impossible to get anything inside Yellowstone (book a year in advance for that) in the winter. We booked a cabin through MOUNTAIN HOME RENTALS right on the Yellowstone River. It sleeps 14 and was cheaper than most hotels, had a great view, and Livingston has a great mountain town feel. Definitely keep this is mind when you visit the area. We got in the hot tub first thing (yes it even had a hot tub). It was a long, long drive and it was definitely nice to just relax.
We left for YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK early the next morning. During the winter only the northern part of the park stays open to cars between MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS and Cooke City, MT. All the other entrances are only open to snow-mobiles and snowcoaches. We got to the north entrance
at around 7 and were greeted by the historic ROOSEVELT ARCH. Interesting stuff to read up on about ol' Teddy Roosevelt when you have the time. Without him, Yellowstone and most other national parks might not be here today. As we entered the park, the Yellowstone River to our side, we were welcomed by soaring bald eagle. We were like little kids! So excited to see a majestic bird soar across the sky! What did Yellowstone have in store for us? This was my first time in Yellowstone. MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS was our first stop. We did a quick "tour" of the nearby hot springs (oh the sulfur smelled delightful). We saw the first elk right inside Mammoth Hot Springs so we kind of figured that the elk would be abundant. The road was icy so driving was pretty slow going. We were kind of surprised at how little snow there were on the ground and this also made it a little harder to see the animals since there were plenty of bushes around for them to hide behind or blend in with. The elk were abundent. We passed by a couple big herds of bison and got some great
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First day in Yellowstone shots. It was freezing. Parts were white. The sky was blue. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL...
LAMAR VALLEY was our destination. We heard (or so the story goes) that during the winter, Lamar Valley gets less snow than the other parts of the park (due to the fact that it is geographically lower than the other parts) which in turn means easier going for the bison and elk since they don't have to plough through 3 feet of snow to find food, which in turn means wolf sightings, since the wolves have to follow them for food. Pretty soon we saw our first group of "wolf-chasers". WOLF-WATCHING is a very big "sport"/ hobby in this part of the world. These people dedicate their lives to following the wolves. I'm not gonna lie...one reason we came to Yellowstone was the snow and wolves. National Geographic specials makes it seem so easy! Unfortunately we never saw the wolves. We caught a speck through some telescopes, but that was the extend of our wolf-watching adventures. The scenery was pretty and plentiful. You can only look at so many buffalo and elk though.
We made it to Cooke City and found that the road
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National Goegraphic here we come!! ended there. We had lunch at THE BISTRO. It had a fire place and food so we were thankful. And that's when the fun started. On our way back we did a little bit of HIKING though the snow and got some really nice pictures. I think the thing that just totally blew us away were the rivers just totally frozen over. We've never seen it like that so this really was something completely new to us. It creates some fascinating scenery and at times you just have to stop and admire and wonder how this all works. Of course we had a "minor accident" on the way back. Just left the road and hit a snow bank, but nothing serious since we were going at about 15 miles an hour. We had to wait quite a while for the tow truck so the ranger kept us company and we actually learned a lot about Yellowstone. We learned that the spring time is a great time to visit, since all the babies are born and come out to play! See - everything has a purpose: car-stuck-off-the-road = Ranger education! $100 later, we were back on the road and ready to
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Cold - cold - cold with a touch of frozen eyelashes!!!! keep exploring.
Well - when in Yellowstone, follow the masses. Just look for areas where cars are pulled over and you are guaranteed to see something. This is what we did. We would drive, find a group, I would drop Nikkie off and find a parking spot down the road. Off course you have the idiots who just pull over in the middle of the road and leave their car there. Oh well - you always have an idiot out there somewhere who spoils it for everyone. I really don't want to know what Yellowstone looks like in the summer because I can just imagine the masses of people trampling each other to get through the park. Anyway - we spotted some otters on our way back. Luckily we just bought the Canon 100-400mm, so we have a great view with the lense. The 3 otters were fighting over a fish that they had just caught so we got way too many pictures of this "otter" fight.
The road back to Livingston was long (we were tired) and a little nerving. A couple times we had to swerve because of elk/deer in the middle of the road. Dinner
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3 Otters going crazy over their latest catch in Livingston was at the PARK PLACE TAVERN. We were spent - the food looked good but we were just not up for it. On Tuesday our real adventure started. Because of our love for adventure (that is what I like to call it) or to be more precise, our lack of preparation, we discovered that we had to drive 2 hours back to WEST YELLOWSTONE for our SNOWMOBILING trip into Yellowstone the next day. Another early rise and long drive. Thank you Starbucks for VIA. We made YELLOWSTONE ADVENTURES just in time. So it was -23 degrees while driving. We figured it would warm up a little bit. Oh were we wrong. We got our full body-suits, helmets, and the works. The snowmobiles have hand-warmers. Uh-huh. They don't help. My hands and feet were frozen within the first couple miles. Oh it was cold. It was beyond cold. It was freezing. Well freezing is 32, and we weren't even close to that beautiful number! I think we reached 10 degrees, but had a serious wind chill. We reached our first "camp" - a trailer with a fireplace selling snacks. Nikkie was pretty close to just staying right there. Her
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Our favorite picture of the trip eye-lashes were frozen together. But she was a trooper. She got some hand and feet warmers and we were ready to go. Buy as many of these as you can before you go on the trip. Our bodies were never really cold, but our hands and feet were always cold. We saw many, many buffalo and elk. Not what we wanted to see....we wanted to see wolves! The inside of the park was magical though. This was the Yellowstone we came to see. Snow as far as the eye can see. Harsh conditions for any animal to survive in. There is no way to describe it. This is one of those things you have to see for yourself. Snow everywhere. Trees covered in snow. While we were in the park that day the sun never really came out. There was mist/ fog present the entire time we were there so the whole time there was just this majestic feeling. It sort of reminded me of when we drove through Redwood National Parks in northern California. You just really get a sense of how small and insignificant we are in this big wild world of ours.
Our first real encounter
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The elk were huge!!! with any WILDLIFE (besides elk and bison) weree with a couple coyotes and some trumpeter swans in HAYDEN VALLEY. The coyotes were stalking these swans and when they took off flying over us the coyotes followed and pretty much ran about 5 feet from us. Amazing pictures. We found many more coyotes, eagles, swans, ducks, elk, buffalo. The pictures of the buffalo were a lot more of what we imagined/ wished for. There were much more snow so the buffalo were half-way buried in the snow looking for food. So were we when we took the pictures 😊
We stayed on the 142-MILE GRAND LOOP. Even though we did not cover it all, we covered most of it. We passed the NORRIS GEYSER BASIN and the UPPER GEYSER BASIN which created some incredible pictures with the GEYSERS and GEOTHERMAL POOLS, the mist and the sun that just wanted to stick its head out. We passed the mud pools. Stopped for lunch and defrosted before heading for the UPPER FALLS, the LOWER FALLS and the GRAND CANYON OF YELLOWSTONE. The lower falls were incredible. The mist from the falls in essence freezes immediately and falls down so you have this
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Big Bull... 100 foot mountain of frozen mist in front of a 200 foot fall. And then the falls itself is almost frozen over so all you see is frozen ice with this thundering roar. The trip back to West Yellowstone was long, cold and pretty uneventful. We did see a coyote stalking some mice. An incredible thing to witness. Before coming we saw some specials on how foxes nose-dive into 3-4 feet of ice catching the mice underneath the snow. We stood there for about 15 minutes waiting for him to "dive" but it never happened. It would have been cool to see it. And by 5 we were back. The last couple miles it started snowing. Again just absolutely magical. It was cold, wet, miserable, and not fun at all, but looking back on it now this is the thing we talk about most about this trip and these are the memories that we want to create and remember and share. We endured a lot that day but we got some amazing pictures and it all was so worth it. That being said I would probably not do this again unless it is considerably warmer. Still no wolves.
We
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Chasing trumpeter swans! are big coffee drinkers and Starbucks is our mecca. Well Montana is not a part of the country where you want to crave the SBUX because there are none. ROCKFORD COFFEE in BOZEMAN filled our caffeine needs. We heard great things about it and it was ok. We ate at OVER THE TAPAS in Bozeman and were really impressed. Nikkie wanted to move to Bozeman since she just loves the small town feel (comparable to Durango, CO). We visited MUSEUM OF THE ROCKIES for the biggest T-Rex skull. It was humungous. The museum itself was pretty interesting in the way of all the dinosaur stuff they had. Never knew that Montana was such a big hub for fossils/ bones dino stuff. See you always learn something when you travel. At the time they had a WWII traveling picture exhibition which was very, very moving, interesting and fascinating. You see these pictures taken in situations that you only wish to be in (only as a photographer) because these pictures are just so "different" and natural. Well our little visit came to an end and we rang in the New Year 2010 at the 2ND STREET BISTRO in Livingston. Very good food
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Maybe next time!! and incredible drinks. Anthony Bourdain ate here in his show, "No Reservations." Highly recommended!
The next day we tackled the long road back. We came back on the eastern side of Yellowstone. Again there were some side trips to be had on the way back, but unfortunately most people don't see the need to cater to tourists on New Year's day so we just had to turn around in front of closed doors/ gates and continue on the long way back. We finally made it to DENVER, CO (long long drive but we saw so so many eagles and falcons on the way). We met our friends, Derrick and Jessica, for food and drinks at THE HORNET. Just your typical neighborhood bar with good beer and bar food. The next day we expanded our boundaries and explored DENVER'S CULTURAL SCENE. As luck may have it the DENVER ART MUSEUM was having a free admission day (we never show up on these days). We wandered and wandered around for hours looking at all kinds of art. Fascinating at times and very confusing at others. I guess art is in the eye of the beholder. Trust me, there were many things
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More snow!!!! that I would probably thrown straight in the trash if given to me for free. But I guess that is what makes art interesting. Different things appeal to different people. We concluded our trip with yet another inspiring meal at PALETTES (the restaurant at the museum). Definitely the best "museum restaurant" I have ever eaten at.
Well 7 things to cross-off. Denver's Cultural Scene, Museum of the Rockies, Yellowstone National Park, and Wolf-Watching in Yellowstone. 83 down and 3,239 to go. Til next time.
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Chris and Nikki
Chris
Wow
Breathtaking picture!