West Yellowstone, MT

We arrived safely this past Thursday at West Yellowstone, MT. This is the Western gateway to Yellowstone Park. First observance is that it is a cute little town with a lot of the typical tourist trap stores that all sell pretty much the same stuff. There are two grocery stores in town, both small - no Wal-Mart etc.

Our drive here brought us through some interesting countryside and right through Earthquake Lake area, where in 1959 there was a 7.5 earthquake that formed the lake. I've posted pictures of our drive here at the picasa web site.

We are parked at the Pony Express RV Park which is behind the Hitch'in Post Motel. The sites are very close together but we got a site with 50amp, water, sewer, cable TV and wifi (when it works).

Friday we did laundry in the morning wanting to be caught up before we head into the park. In the afternoon we went to the Grizzly Discovery Center. That was a really neat experience. They have bears that for one reason or other cannot be put back into the wild so they have a habitat where they display two or three at a time for about 45 min. What they do is hide food around the habitat then release the bears and you get to watch from a safe area as they hunt for the food, just like they would in the wild. There is also a pool for them to cool off in. They also have a pack of wolves. They were out in their habitat, but were being very lazy since it was the middle of the afternoon and warm. Check out the pictures I've posted.

After leaving the Grizzly Discovery Center we decided to drive on into Yellowstone to check out where we will be living for the next week. We also figured we would surprise Garry and Jenny with a short visit. What a drive it was! I'm so anxious to get back into the park. We spotted a bald eagle about 6 miles from the entrance and then just down the road a few miles saw some female elk with their little ones. Of course there was the first sighting of a geyser with many more to come. After a little over 2 hours, we found the employee campground but arrived before Garry and Jenny got home so we went to the Lake Lodge cafeteria for a bite to eat. Talk about expensive. I'm glad I don't have a family of 4 or 5 to feed here. One family of 5 checked out behind us and their total bill was over $80.00.

We went back to the campground and Garry and Jenny were home so we sat for a short while and chatted, catching up on each other's news. We will join them tomorrow (Sunday) for a week and I'm really looking forward to it. While sitting at their picnic table, we spotted four more female elk right behind where we will be parked!

On our drive out of the park back to West Yellowstone we took the northern loop and had only gone about 5 miles and spotted our first bison. Quite a big fellow. He actually got very close to our truck (see picture) and then proceeded to walk down the road in front of us. Of course this blocked traffic - the wildlife have the right of way. Several miles later we spotted more bison with one blocking both lanes of traffic. It seems that there was one female who had already been claimed by a male but there where two other males challenging him including the one blocking the roadway. Quite interesting watching them and listening to the one male's grunts of warning for the other two to stay away.

We also passed a geyser and hot spring, and a waterfall before leaving the park. There is so much more to discover and I'm ready. Unlike most of the other National Parks we've visited, Yellowstone seems much more interactive because of the wildlife.

I don't know if I'll have internet for the next week or not. Will depend on weather we get a clear shot of the southeastern sky from the campground. If I've not posted in over a week, you will know that we didn't! Anyway, until the next post, enjoy the pictures from yesterday and know that there will be more to come.