August 1-2, 2014 West Yellowstone

Friday, August 1st

Nora called last night and we got together for breakfast and a nice girls morning/afternoon.  It was great to see her and get caught up with each other.  If we stay here longer, we will get together again.

The rest of the day we just hung out and then relaxed by the campfire.  We had a little visitor:

Looks like he was getting lots of scraps somewhere:

What a hoot!

Saturday, 2nd

We headed to downtown West Yellowstone for this morning’s car show parade.  Our first stop was the display area and we got so involved with the cool looking cars that we missed the street parade.  But the neat thing was we were right at the area where they come into the park – … so we got to see them all.

I took lots of pictures – here are a “few” of my favorites:

WOW!!  These folks put a lot of work into their vehicles.  Great show!

From the park we walked thru the town.  West Yellowstone main street downtown is your typical touristy street with shops but we had some fun anyway.

Some pictures downtown:

Funny T-Shirts:

They also have many of their trash cans painted – really nice looking:

Also cool painted buffalo all over too:

This is one of the historic buildings – Eagle’s Store.  The Eagles were one of the town’s three founding families and opened the store in 1908. This building was actually rebuilt in 1927 and replaced two previous Eagle’s stores at this same location.  Their descendants still operate the store today. 

We stopped at one of the little restaurants for lunch and had a great buffalo burger.  YUM!

Our next stop was the Yellowstone Historic Center Museum:

Here is the museum.  It was the Union Pacific Depot and is the oldest building still standing in West Yellowstone.  It was built in 1909 to receive the visitors arriving on the Oregon Short Line’s “Yellowstone Special”.

Such a beautiful depot.  There were displays and information on the history of West Yellowstone which included the trains, the first tourists, the fires, the big earthquake, Yellowstone Park and more.

There were four movies that we saw.  The first one was on the Yellowstone fires of 1988 – actual footage.  WOW!

The areas in orange are the areas that were on fire:

There was a great movie on the 1959 Earthquake in the Madison River Canyon.  Only a few displays because there is a visitor center nearby.  We did pick up an auto tour brochure to do that tour.

Another section was on traveling in the winter, including a movie on the benefits of the snowmobile:

Check out the size of this grizzly (that is the one on the left ):

The transportation area:

There was another movie on the Montana Centennial Train in the 1960’s.  This is one of the panels from that train:

The other side of the train station:

The Dining Lodge:

I am not sure if the Lodge is normally open to the public.  There was a sign on the door about a private party and I went up to look in the door windows.  As they came out, I asked about going inside to take pictures.  No problem, they were setting up for a wedding but no one had arrived yet.

Isn’t this beautiful:

WOW!  Can you imagine coming in on the train and having dinner here?

The street side of the Dining Lodge:

What a nice day and such a neat little town.

Tomorrow we are checking out the Earthquake Area so stay tuned and enjoy today.

 

July 30 - 31, 2014 Travel to West Yellowstone and Bakers Hole Campground

Wednesday, July 30th

This morning we awoke at 4 AM.  Yes, that’s right 4 AM.  We wanted to be on the road early because we had hoped to avoid the traffic jams and get to Bakers Hole Campground north of West Yellowstone early.  That campground is part of the Gallatin National Forest and it is first come, first serve.  This time of year it fills by noon.

So at first light, we made our way west thru the Shoshone National Forest into Yellowstone National Park:

Going up to Sylvan Pass – the sun was rising:

Past many waterfalls:

Thru Sylvan Pass:

And down the other side:

Past thru all the beautiful wildflowers:

Early Morning Boat Ride:

Beautiful Hot Springs:

Pelican Creek Area:

We stopped at Fishing Bridge RV Park, used their dump station, and then headed north along the Yellowstone River where we saw the fog:

Remember the picture of Hayden Valley and the buffalo herd from Monday?  Well, the valley was really fogged in so we took it very slow.  Almost didn’t see these guys until we were upon them:

At Canyon Village, we turned west.  In 1981, I was thru this area and called it “The Avenue of the Giants.”  There was row upon row of very tall lodge pole pine – it was awesome.  In 1988, many were destroyed in the Yellowstone Fire.  In 1997, Andy and I were thru here and it was still pretty bare.  It is nice to see all this growth since then.

At Norris Village, we turn south along the Gibbon River where we came into the fog again:

Past more hot springs:

Into Madison Village where we turned west again, out of the park, into West Yellowstone, and lastly, north to Gallatin National Forest, Bakers Hole Campground.

We arrived at 9 AM and did our rounds looking for an electric site.  We did not find any so we pulled into a non electric site and walked around the campground to see if anyone was leaving today.   And, yes, we found someone who was, and he told us to pull in behind him until he was ready to go.

We had some great conversation with them in between them packing up – what a wonderful couple.  They left around 1 PM and we pulled up and spent the afternoon getting situated.

Here is our site:

The other end of our site – it is a HUGE pull thru:

Our backyard:

Andy enjoying himself and the campfire:

Dusty just loves the forest and the greenery.  He had a great time exploring:

And our Bella kept an eye on Dusty.  We do not let her out because she gets very scared and wants to run and hide.

What a wonderful day!  We hope to be here for a while to enjoy the forest and do some exploring.

Stats for today: 103 Miles

Miles Traveled: Routes Traveled:

Wyoming: US 14/16/20; Grand Loop Road; US 20/191/287

Montana: US 20/191/287; US 191/287

Thursday, 31st

We were in bed very early last night and just took it easy this morning.  After lunch, we decided to check out West Yellowstone.  So we drove around and made stops at the Laundromats (to check out), the hardware store, the grocery store, the Visitor Center, the Gallatin National Forest Visitor Center, Grizzly RV (they have a dump station for only $6.00) – and checking out the scenery along the way.

One of my beading buddies, Nora, is working at the guilt shop here so we stopped in to see her – what a nice surprise.  The store was getting busy so we only stayed a short time and hope to get together soon.

I spent the rest of the day getting the blog caught up and answering emails.  So if I owe you an email and you haven’t received it, please email me again.  We do have phone and internet service here with our Wilson antennae.

Another wonderful day in the forest –