On the road again!: Yellowstone National Park, Sept 13-15

We left Rapid City nice and early with packed sandwiches. We chose to go via Route 212 which was shorter in distance than via the interstate. And, it was supposed to be shorter in time, but there was quite a lot of construction, so...it wasn't. But, it was interesting and mostly deserted with miles between little towns, many of which had no gas stations. We also went through two reservations. We stopped for lunch at Little Big Horn which we find a sad place, although beautiful.

Little Big Horn

We are staying at our first Air BnB. It is in the house of a couple who live on a ridge above the small town of Emigrant, MT. It is strange to be in a bedroom on the first floor of their house, but the hosts, Ken and Debbie deGraff, are doing their best to make us feel at home. We shopped in Livingstone and we have a shelf in their refrigerator. Ken helped us plan our route tomorrow through the northern portion of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone River where we had a picnic

What a wonderful day we spent in Yellowstone today! The weather was perfect - blue skies and in the 70s. Our first stop was to Norris Hot Springs area where we saw geysers, boiling pools of mud and bubbling and steaming springs.

Our next stop was to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which we viewed from several vantage points.

Then, we went on to our farthest point- the Hayden Valley where herds of antelope, elk and buffalo are often seen. (Buffalo were there, but very far away.)

Herd of elk in Mammoth Hot Springs

En route, we picked at a quiet spot which was needed as the main attractions were very full and it was hard to find parking, even with Mark's handicap sticker.

We left through Mammoth Springs, but will stop there tomorrow morning. There was a really large herd of elk in the middle of town causing the rangers some problems.

Leaving the park, we saw 5 big horned sheep which was a real treat and a great way to end the day.

They actually seemed to pose for us. Then, we stopped at a grocery store in Gardiner and got some chicken and a tomato and ate at a beautiful roadside stop along the Yellowstone River. We didn't get back to the air bnb until past 6. A wondrous day, for sure.

Big horned sheep ascending

The next day we got up a bit earlier to get to the Park. First, we went and got a day pass to Chico Hot Springs for later in the day. Our goal today was to see Mammoth Hot Spring which we missed yesterday, choosing to go further into the park on the first day. We thoroughly walked both the upper and lower parts of the hot springs. It is a surreal and magical landscape. We also found a cell phone with credit cards in it which we turned in to the Visitor Center and the woman was there to gratefully pick it up while we were in the bathrooms, so we didn't meet her.

Afterwards, we drove to Chico Hot Springs, a resort near Emigrant. We spent the afternoon in the hot mineral pools relaxing and chatting to people. It was idyllic. We tried to get into their fine dining restaurant, but there were no tables, so we ate at the outside grill which was only mediocre, but we were so very relaxed.