What an exciting day! Not only did I take another state off my to-do list, but I was able to get so close to a Bison that I could have almost reached out an touched it. After a quick breakfast at the hotel we headed to Walmart to grab some picnic supplies, and then we were off towards Yellowstone. Before too long we left the flat plains of Bozeman and entered the Gallatin River Valley (as shown below).
The Gallatin River is one of the three rivers that converge in Three Forks, MT to form the Missouri River. The weird thing about the river is that it flows northwest, so as we traveled south beside the river, it seemed to flow “uphill”. Before long, we arrived in West Yellowstone and headed into Yellowstone Park. It wasn’t long before we were greeted by our first Bison – man they are HUGE!
After taking a few pictures, we continued on, stopping occasionally for photo ops and also because of wildlife on the road. For lunch we stopped at Canyon Village and had a picnic of last night’s steak frites and some fresh bread we had picked up. Then, we were off again…on a mission to see if we could find a bear or elk to photograph. We stopped at the Mud Volcano, and despite the strong sulphur smell, decided to walk around and take some pictures. The pictures below are of Mud Volcano and Dragon’s Mouth Spring.
After we left Yellowstone, we entered Grand Teton National Park. It is quite a drastic change in topography; with Grand Teton soaring almost 14,000 feet in the air. Although we arrived in the afternoon when the sun was directly behind the mountains, I was still able to get a couple of good pictures of the trio of mountains (Grand Teton, Mount Moran and South Teton).
Part of the reason that I was able to get pictures was because of the clouds that rolled in bringing some drizzle; and in turn, a double rainbow.
Before we knew it we were in Jackson. Jackson, is the epitome of a touristy ski resort town. The downtown streets are laden with outdoorsy shops and resorts line the highway. The hotel we are staying in was a tad difficult to find, but eventually we found it and brought in our bags, quickly freshened up, and headed off to dinner. Sidewinder’s Tavern was our Food Network stop for today and unfortunately it was a disaster. The service was sub-par and the food was mediocre at best – definitely not a place that I will ever recommend. I guess after visiting over 30 restaurants thus far, we were bound to find a dud. Maybe, on a different night, with a different waitress, and a different order of food it could be good. But, as it stands, I have to give it thumbs down.
Well it has been a long day, and my intermittent WiFi has made this blog take longer than normal to write (I can’t complain though, the front desk had a sign that warned of sketchy WiFi because it is, Wyoming of course).
Thank you for putting up with my rant and I will talk to you tomorrow.
L
