The Super 8 in Livingston, MT was great. We got there and I posted a bunch of blog entries. We got a room with 2 beds this time, so Caleb got a bed to sleep in. The room was great, until I went into the bathroom and flushed the toilet. Water started pouring out of the tank like a waterfall. We told the front desk and the gave us another room, this one had 2 queen beds (instead of doubles) and a minifridge. The beds were really comfortable, which was also nice. We stayed up late (probably 1ish) trying to plan out our next few days. The plan had been to go up to Glacier NP but they were supposed to get a lot of snow. The weather generally didn’t look good anywhere close for the next few days. Caleb had a plan to stay around this area longer and try to wait out the weather so we could travel in nicer weather for the rest of our trip. The plan consisted of staying the night in Yellowstone the next night, then driving through the part of the park that was open and spending the next night in Jackson WY. From there we’d go up towards Keystone, SD (Mount Rushmore) and spend a night near there. Then spending one in the Badlands and therefore effectively letting the weather pass us by.
I just realized that a lot of that I had written in the last entry, oh well. So now on to what we did. We got subway right by the hotel but then decided that would make a good dinner so stopped at a pizza place and split a pepperoni/green pepper pizza for breakfast/lunch. It was a great pizza, and we ate the whole thing! I drove into Yellowstone and we went straight to Mammoth to make sure we could get a campsite.
We shouldn’t have worried about that. There were a couple sites taken but we had our pick for the most part. We paid and left our marker on the site saying that it was taken then headed down to Boiling River. Dan and I went in and Caleb went for a walk (he didn’t want to get his cast wet, probably a good idea). Because the water level was so high the river was spilling into the hot part a lot more than it had last time I was there. This made it really nice to sit under the hot water coming in, but every so often there were these really cold currents that came through. Even so it was pretty awesome. I like that place a lot and would highly recommend it to those going to Northern Yellowstone. Sadly the batteries on my “good” camera were dead and the others were in the car so I wasn’t able to use that one to get good pictures of the bison and mule deer that were close. It’s ok though, cuz I got plenty later.
When we were done sitting in the water (while it snowed around us) we got dressed and dried off quickly, it was cold outside! While walking back up the path we spotted Caleb coming back as well, perfect timing. This was the best walk back to the car we’ve had. The buffalo had decided to take the path that led back to the parking lot, and it wasn’t a wide one. We slowly walked behind the herd. When we got close to them they’d move down the trail a little bit. It was pretty awesome being that close to them.
From there we went up to Mammoth Hot Springs and visited the visitor center and walked around the boardwalks for the terraces. That was an interesting and snowball-filled walk. It’s funny to think that we were in the south a couple weeks ago and wearing summery clothes. At the visitor center we found out that the road we had though we could take out the northeast entrance was closed just after the park. We had planned to drive out that way this morning so were forced to change our plans again.
From Mammoth we drove out along that road that was open because we would no longer be doing it the next morning in hopes of seeing wildlife. When we first went into the park the woman at the guard station told us that was a great place to go to see animals. And see animals is exactly what we did! We drove a ways down, ate some of our Subway, then turned around and went back.
On the way out we saw many more buffalo/bison including a few groups in the road. It was funny though, they know what to do with cars. We drove slowly around them and they would get off the road. One group was walking up the road in the opposition direction and when we came to them they got in a single file line to pass us. It was great.
We found a nice pull-out near the meadows and the river to sit and see if we could see any interesting animals. We sat for awhile and saw a pronghorn (deer?). After a bit we decided to go back. I spotted a coyote, which we stopped and watched until he went into the bushes. A little ways down we saw more pronghorns. Then around a corner right next to the road there were a bunch of bighorn sheep grazing. I took a LOT of pictures of them. Our last pretty cool animal sighting were a couple elk who were also quite close to the road. Well, one was right next to the road conveniently next to a pull-out so I took his picture as well and the other was a little ways down the hill.
From our animal expedition we went on a search for firewood. For this we drove out of the park into Gardner (the town that’s right there). 2 gas stations and an RV park later we got a bag of sopping wet firewood that Dan had on his lap the whole way back to the site.
As we got back to Mammoth campground it started snowing, so we put our tents up in the snow. Then it was campfire time. I’d say a good 45 minutes and a lot of paper later we finally go the fire going. We all worked on it but I think Caleb’s perseverance with it finally is what made it work. The fire was very smoky and it was still snowing and quite cold out. We huddled around the fire drinking a couple beers for awhile, then it got too cold and it was late and my eyes were burning from the smoke. It was time for bed. Dressed in many layers we got in our tents. I had Dan for warmth (which is very helpful, cuz I was freezing!) and Caleb wore I think he said 7 layers.
This morning we woke up to a few inches of snow and still going strong. We got everything into the car and took the poles out of the tents while they were still up. Then we unstaked our tent and picked it up and shook as much snow as possible off of it. We picked up the tent, fly and footprint at once. This all got stuffed into the tent bag to take care of/dry out later. Which we’ll have to do at some point.
Now we’re driving to Rapid City via Billings and Devil’s Tower. In Billings we’re getting gas and Pita Pit for lunch (dan and caleb got pita pit the other day in Bozeman but I really wasn’t hungry, even though it’s great. So I went online at the hotel that night to see if we’d be coming across any others. I found the one in Billings, on the way!) Devil’s tower also isn’t far out of the way, and should be cool. Without stops the GPS is saying ETA of 6ish so I’d say it probably will be more like 7:30 or 8 which is pretty good for another longish day of driving! Tomorrow Mt Rushmore, Badlands and then maybe/probably driving a little ways towards Madison where we’ll catch up with Mark and Missy!
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