Day 18 – Sunday July 14, 2013

We left our nice little KOA site in Great Falls, MT and headed south to Yellowstone National Park. It was mostly sunny and temperatures hovered around +25C but reached as high as +30C. Julie notes “The song playing on the local radio channel was ‘Do the hustle!’ so we hustled up some yogurt and berries and coffee for breakfast and hit the road, looking forward to some warm, shorts weather.”

Nice little KOA site in Great Falls, MT

We made a brief roadside stop at Sluice Boxes scenic lookout. Julie notes “We were an unwilling audience to a helmets vs no helmets discussion amongst some motorcyclists as we read the historical info. The wife of one of the bikers seemed to also be an unwilling audience as she tried to strike up a different conversation with anyone she could, EVEN us! It IS a strange sight to see bikers zip by with mostly graying locks flapping in the breeze. ‘Ride safely and well ahead or behind us’ is my prayer for them all.”

Sluice Boxes scenic lookout

We stopped under the Big Skies of Montana so the sidekick could make us some lunch. Julie notes “Do you want fries with that?”

The big skies of Montana

We entered Yellowstone at the town of Gardiner passing under the Roosevelt Arch. ‘Julie notes “Not to be confused with the Golden Arches. We drove back and forth several times trying to find the intercom to order those fries mentioned above.”

Roosevelt Arch, Gardiner

Some spectacular scenery awaited us in Yellowstone but it is extremely popular and very, very busy in mid-July. This is probably not the best time to visit. Julie notes “Note to self, there is a reason seniors such as ourselves, travel in the fall. ‘People, people everywhere and a not a drop to drink, or a stop to think, or a pot to stink.’??? I know there is another saying in there somewhere. The tame onlookers were everywhere but behaving very respectfully as they watched the wild elk, bison, perhaps a bear in the distance, trumpeter swans, geese and birds of all manner.”

We took a small boardwalk around the Norris geysers. Julie notes “We kept saying ‘This is so cool!’ but it was actually very hot. We may be oxy morons. But the colours of the different thermophile organisms that have adapted to the different temperatures of water were, well I’ll say it again, very cool. Not colours you see on your usual nature walk.”

Old geezers with the old geysers? Julie notes “Well at least one old geezer! And this note goes out to my dad who signed his daily emails with an OG, for Old Geezer. Miss you dad. You would’ve loved to see this.”

We carried on through many of the park roads looking for a campsite for the night. One of those side trips took us over the Dunraven Pass pass at 8,859′. All of the campsites were full and we were starting to think we would have to drive quite a ways south out of the park to find a spot. Luckily, however, one of the agents at Bridge Bay campground found us a site and reserved it for us at the next campground on our way south, Grant Village campground. It was getting late, but we set up the BBQ, cooked some nice Costco Belmont burgers, and had a fire. We were both tired after a long but enjoyable day (except for the other people who think they should be here too!) Julie notes “Speaking of fire, we saw much evidence of the fire of 1988. But Mother Nature is amazing at reclaiming and reforesting the landscape. I am looking forward to reading more about that at the Visitor Centre tomorrow, so that I can immediately forget it and misquote all kinds of facts.”

Julie notes “‘mmmmmm’, because her mouth is full.

…over and out folks, the muleskinner and his sidekick

Or Yogi and BooBoo or the Old Geysers