Chapter 2

We started the day with a very mediocre motel breakfast, but we were proud that we were on the road by 7:50. We drove 3 hours across Montana, through the usual smoke with a few hints of mountains behind the smoke. Just before Bozeman, we crossed the continental divide, our first step to being in the east!

Our first stop was Bozeman, Montana. Nora has a friend from Green Lake Crew who attends school there, so we met him in a very nice coffee shop. We walked around the neighborhood a little while they caught up.

Then it was on to Yellowstone. The speed limit in Montana is 80!!! except of course, where there is road work, and the speed limit is 35.

Our first stop was Mammoth, which has terraces of mostly white rock, made from minerals deposited by the springs. It was interesting to walk all up and down and around, and see the steam and springs. We didn't see any elk at all (though we saw plenty of evidence that they had been there ...), but we assured Nora she would see elk eventually.

Our next stop was the Norris Basin, one of our favorites from 2012. There's so much to see there; boiling pools, steam vents, geysers, beautifully colored pools. More pictures of Norris follow.

We drove on to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone viewpoint, Artists' Point, for views of the falls and canyon. The fact that it was late in the day actually made it better, we think.

We drove up and around through the Tower-Roosevelt section of the park. We drove over a pass that was over 8800 feet high. We also crossed the 45th parallel of latitude -- so we're heading south as well. There were amazing rock formations as well. Nora was disappointed that we hadn't seen any wildlife, but nearing the end of our drive, we saw a group of people pulled over to the side of the road, and a man loaned us his binoculars so we could see a group of pronghorn up the the hill. About 5 minutes later, we saw a solo buffalo walking along the road! When we got back to Mammoth, there were elk everywhere, including several babies. It was a great end to the day.

We're staying in Gardiner, in the same motel we stayed in 2012, and ate dinner in the same Cowboy's restaurant, with plenty of elk heads hanging on the wall.