numero quattro

Sunday, August 5 in Billings, Montana. (Just can’t seem to clear Montana! Love it here…)
Since my last post I’ve spent 3 days in Yellowstone and one in Grand Teton (English translation: Big Breast). While the scenery is not nearly as spectacular as Glacier, they’re beautiful in their own right.
The drive down from Glacier was very smoky, as Montana is battling several major blazes – one right outside Glacier and another outside Helena. Lots of farm country which I love to drive through – mostly cattle and grains.
I arrived at the North entrance to Yellowstone and headed down to their ‘Grand Canyon’, which someone had told me was the best campspot. Arriving at 1pm I found the campsite full – but was able to snag a spot due to someone’s cancellation. (Campspots in both parks seem to be at an absolute premium this time of year – it’s affected how I schedule my day, as I fight for a spot each day. Hopefully it gets better as I head east.) As I started to set up my tent, a woman in the site next to me asked if I would switch to another site a few spots away so that she and her family could have two adjoining spots. No problem for me, and she made me a turkey sandwich (to order!) and brought it and lunch to my new spot. Now that’s a deal!
That day I tackled a couple of very short, but intense, hikes – each about 1 mile round trip but with 600 feet of vertical (going down into the canyon on each side). The canyon’s spectacular. Next I went on a seven mile loop which was supposed to be relatively easy, with a couple of lakes and some geothermal features. And it was – until it started raining after a couple of miles. I was unprepared and got soaked. As I arrived back in the village area near the campsite, I went inside to warm up and noticed that they were selling t-shirts for $5. Good deal for a dry shirt I thought, so now I have a souvenier! I also found that their cafeteria serves pretty good food – chicken cordon bleu, cheesecake and a hot chocolate for $15. I guarantee I’ve never had hot chocolate on August 1 before!
I was told that although Glacier has tons of moose (and I never saw one) that it’d be unlikely to see any in Yellowstone. But in fact that’s the first thing I saw – three moose crossing the road. Later I encountered a bison crossing, who stood in front of my car ‘posing’ (or evaluating whether he outweighed me!). Lots of deer – I nearly clocked one early in the morning coming around a corner.
Yellowstone is known, of course, for its geothermal features, so the second day I hiked through several of the geyser basins and saw Old Faithful as well. (A bit disappointing after you’ve seen some others, but it’s accessible I guess.) I managed about 15 miles of hiking with some pretty good climbs and took a lot of pictures. Sawa bear track but no bear, thankfully. A very strange place, and a little nerve-wracking – seems it could blow at any moment!
I got rained on again that second day, which I guess is a common occurrence on summer afternoons, but I was prepared with a jacket. I met a local hiker, an older gentleman named Bob, who’d lived in the park for 8 years and was close to completing 5000 miles of hiking in the park. Living my dream!
I drove down to Grand Teton very early the next day to grab a spot at a campground that routinely fills by 9am (it’s tents-only, which holds a lot of attraction for those of us without motorhomes.) I had to drive into Jackson, Wyoming to pick up some equipment, including the power cord for this laptop – which turned out to be the wrong one (so this could be my last post for a while; new power cords are $125). I did a 15.5 mile hike that afternoon to Solitude Lake which took me from 6800 feet up to 9000. What a climb. The lake was beautiful but I’d forgotten my camera, so I’ll need to find some photos on the ‘net.
Yesterday I drove the Beartooth pass, which is supposedly the most beautiful drive in America – and I won’t argue. It goes through scenery like I’d been hiking to, so those people who don’t get out of their cars got to see what I’ve been working hard to see…
Running out of battery. Today I’m heading to Wind Cave in South Dakota and then north through North Dakota and Minnesota. Will post in a few days if I can find an internet connection in some local library.
Ciao! Have a great day!