Northern Yellowstone Loop

West Yellowstone, Montana: Somehow we were able to get ourselves into Yellowstone National Park just after 7a today. World Record? (Flashback to yesterday when we did not go into the park: Dave as out riding his bike mid-morning and said the line to get into the park streamed all the way through West Yellowstone!) The weather was just fantastic again. We needed light jackets in the early morning, but it was HOT before 11a.

There are many turnouts and places to stop and take a walk to a view point. We stopped at most - except the few that do not allow RVs - but I will only post photos from a few, even though our day was not as taxing as Monday due to a horrible traffic accident that delayed us by four hours, it is still a long haul. We drove 126 miles today.

We stopped at Gibbon Falls, on the Gibbon River, to see the gorgeous falls where the water has cut through tuff. It is a beautiful sight:

Interesting or not, Brother Rick phoned this evening to say he had been fishing on the Gibbon River all day and had caught (and released) a zillion fish.

Next on the itinerary was a visit to Roaring Mountain. This hillside is filled with bubbling pots and steam rises constantly. Fascinating.

We would occasionally see lone bison bulls sleeping or grazing in a meadow. They are just biding their alone-time until they are called into duty in a few weeks. There were swans with young on Swan Lake, but no ballerinas.

We also visited Tower Falls. DT swears we have been here before, but I do not recall. It is another pretty waterfall, as tall as a tower apparently. Below the falls people were swimming in the river:

After stopping for a bit at Mammoth Visitor Center (where I randomly scored a bit of French brie), we began the trek up Dunraven Pass. There was road construction and we had to wait for cars to pass in the opposite direction for about 20 minutes. It was fine. We had a beautiful view and the weather was so sunny and lovely. But then we heard sirens and a Park Ranger came screaming up the mountain (on the wrong side of the road). Oh. No. Not another accident! No. It was nothing that concerned us and actually have no idea why the ranger was driving 50 up the hill. We waited, and were finally released, but had to drive very carefully over loose gravel for several miles. When we finally pulled-over to let traffic pass us, we saw a black bear from afar, and had a little critter come to say hello!

On our way back to West Yellowstone, we did pass the spot where the traffic accident happened Monday. It was pretty bad, though it had been cleaned up. So sad, and we still can't find out even one thing about what happened! After stopping for lunch (tuna salad) at Elk Meadow, we returned to our campsite at 2p. Early, but still a very long day... though DT still went out on his bike for one hour of exercise. I prepped dinner for tonight and marinated chicken for tomorrow as long as I was standing up in the kitchen. At five o'clock, when a normal person would have been relaxing and thinking of a cocktail, My Driver thought we should walk over to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center because the enormous Grizzly bear was going on display at 6p. (Your admission ticket is good for two consecutive days.) We did see the 697 pound monster, Coram.

Dinner tonight was easy. I made a marinade of grated ginger, sherry, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt & white pepper. The marinade could not have been more than 1/3 cup. One package of extra-firm tofu was cubed and tossed in the marinade. I blanched a bit of asparagus and chopped half a red pepper. The whole mess was stir-fried for our dinner tonight and served with Jasmine rice and Taiwan Pickle (cucumber salad).

Until my next update, I remain, your circular correspondent.

Campground Information: Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park - This is the best commercial RV park (in my opinion) to camp in to explore the park. We paid $121 per night with a senior discount for a full-service gravel back-in with picnic table. Laundry, bathhouse, playground, gift shop, ice - and you can walk to town to a large variety of tourist shops and restaurants. The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center is less than two blocks away.

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