Wide Open Spaces and Yellowstone Glory
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Jul 25, 2008
Yesterday we headed out from Spearfish, South Dakota and journeyed across the prairies of Montana. No wonder it is called Big Sky Country - the blue sky was huge, the vast grasslands even more enormous. It was lonely driving as we were once again on highway not interstate, but so pleasant as there was no traffic. The only delays we experienced were some construction delays.We made our way through two Native American reservations - The Northern Cheyenne and The Crow. That was interesting. The drive also took us to Little Bighorn where General Custer had his last stand against the Native Americans. At the last minute we decided to visit the memorial and the battlefield. It was a quick visit, but really interesting.
After that we kept on driving for miles and miles. It was getting a little tiring, but we did ok. Finally we felt like we were getting somewhere when we saw the mountains. Quite refreshing after all that open country. We said our last goodbye to the prairie. We headed into our hotel only to find there was no internet and the TV coverage was pretty lousy. Kind of a disappointment after a 8 hour driving day.
Well, this morning we all hopped up bright and early because today we were in YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK!! Yellowstone was the first National Park established in the late 19th century/early 20th century by President T Roosevelt. It is the largest in the contiguous U.S., and a must-see place if you can.
We entered the park through the Roosevelt Arch. The entrance was about half a mile from our hotel so that all happened quick. It was so fun to use our National Park pass and just drive on in. As we did we prayed we would see some cool animals today. We drove to the visitors center in Mammoth Hot Springs to get the scoop on what we should see. That was a good place to start.
We drove through beautiful meadows, forest, lakes and hot springs. The only thing to mar our day was the manslaughter of a squirrel by our car. It was a sad moment. It actually would have made it, but it panicked and stopped and then ran back the way it came and SMACK, it was all over. I grieved for that little squirrel. Michael was just thrilled to have another gruesome experience :)
We eventually got to Canyon Village and to the waterfalls that were just outside of the village. They were STUNNING!! It was the Yellowstone River pouring over a ledge and just thundering down. It was awe-inspiring and terrifying. I kept a firm hold of my little family.
After we left the falls we decided to go around the Grand Loop. That was cool as it took us through this beautiful valley which was grassland and there was a huge herd of buffalo. It was so amazing. They were fighting, dusting off, snoozing, eating and there were lots of babies. It was cool. We had seen one earlier by the road, but these was even more amazing. We stopped to take some pictures and upon hopping back into the car we found we were at a standstill. Well, there was a buffalo having a standoff with a car. It was so incredible. After moving on, it walked up the road right beside us. How cool is that!!!
We continued our drive past Yellowstone Lake (it is the highest lake in the US and is frozen for half the year) and finally arrived at Old Faithful. Old Faithful is a geyser that erupts approximately every hour and has done for years and years. It is one of the major attractions of Yellowstone. We hadn't eaten so we grabbed a quick bite and then off we went to see the geyser. We weren't sure how long we were going to have to wait, but 10 minutes later or so, it went off. Perfect timing!
After the show, we walked around the immediate geothermal area which was other small geysers and boiling water. We enjoyed it a lot. It was getting hot so we headed back to the car and headed out. We decided we wanted to try and see a few more animals so drove back through some country we had seen, but then headed for our hotel in West Yellowstone.
Across the street is the Grizzly Bear and Wolf Sanctuary, so we ended up spending a couple hours there watching the grizzlies and the wolves. Very cool. Will write more tomorrow about them.
Tomorrow we head to Boise, Idaho to see friends there. Another state on our journey. Till then. edit
1 comment:
Yellowstone was established in 1872, and Teddy Roosevelt had nothing to do with it. He was a teenager.
It's an all too common myth whose origin I can't figure out.
Cheers,
Jim
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