Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park.. has been on my list for years!! 

But first a little lead in to it.. Traveling west from South Dakota,  I stopped for the night outside the park in Cody Wyoming.  Named after the all too famous William "Buffalo Bill" Cody.

A bit like Elvis, could swear I actually saw the guy alive and well walking down the street back in Custer, South Dakota!  Could Micheal be nearby??


Found some hot springs further along the road that remind me a bit of Pammukkale Turkey!  Pammukkale was really dramatic having never seen a landscape like it before.  I remember thinking while there that I wonder if any other place on the planet would have such calcium mineral formations, and here it is!  (granted, not as nice as Pamukkale..)  In a place called Thermopolis, Wyoming.. interesting name!  Being that Pammukkale was at a place in Turkey called Heiropolis!!  On the other side of the planet!



Now on to Old Trail Town Wyoming.. laid out by Bill Cody in 1895..  Most of these western states have plenty of history, wagon wheels, and buffalo grazing in the field.  But this old town drew me in because it has many of the original cabins.


This is where I have always thought I'm meant to be.. a pioneer woman in the wild west..   However, in this daydream I've often had (instigated by all the best western movies I watched as a kid on Sunday mornings with my Dad), I imagined I would be rescued by a long black hair native man on a pinto horse with lots of feathers and beads of color and ride off into the sunset!!   I probably shouldn't admit my dreams in writing, should I!!

Oh dear.. back to Old Town..





Still taking the long way around, I go up to Red Lodge and carry over to Yellowstone via the Beartooth Highway. (which weaves in and out of Montana and Wyoming borders) Highly recommended by many as then most beautiful road in America!  After coming across the midwest flatlands of corn and soybeans, I won't argue with this claim..




Even at this elevation I get one of my biggest bug splats ever!



Now for a bit of Yellowstone.. Finally!!


What is one of the biggest attractions to aim for here??  Old Faithful, of coarse!  By the looks of the crowd here, "biggest" was the key word!



This is what we've all been looking at for the last 45 minutes..

And then.. pressure..!!! I've met a few people, let alone Mother Nature, who do exactly this!! ;-)


Oops, felt the need to pop my head up.. to ruin a perfectly good photo! ;-)





Remnants of a forest fire.. 1980's?










Heading on down the road, as we ALL do!!




Close call!!

Plenty of buffalo in the road, and from what I can tell, it's their preferred track as well.


















Kiss My Ass, comes to mind...!!

Made my way to camp..  lots of warnings about bears, not many campsites available.. not much food in my pack, I go to a little community called Fort Yellowsotne built by the US Army in 1886 as a base to control the Sioux Native people.  Now it's "tourist central"..as you might imagine and I find these elk also prefer the freedom of this very public land.


U.S. Post Office.. and the local loitering elk!

The next morning, I scrape the frost off my bike's seat and make my way out for an early morning ride.. hoping to see a grizzly bear!!  It's on my list.. as well as the wolves I've been listening to, but not seeing.  Anyway, I found a dirt track.. yay!!  After all the civilized paved highways to get here, and even within here, this is a real treat..




























I made it to the east side of the park where I knew some people saw a grizzly yesterday. I hope with my zoom you can see Mr. Grizzly.. this is my first one to see and I'm happy to keep my distance.



Bear crosses river and has a one on one face off with a lone buffalo..  Having the time to watch for a while, when I knew where the bear was heading,  I was so ready to see it fly.. and then hide my eyes.  But nope!  After the stand off, the bear walked on.. and ate grass!!  Fascinating!

Aw well, Grizzly bear I was glad to see, even at such a distance.. better than nothing!

On a rush back to camp to beat the sunset , Indian Creek camp to be exact at the Northwest side of the park, I loved the moon...  was just such a pretty dusk, why rush...



Couldn't decide which one I like the best so I show you both.. hope you can see the elk, lovely lucky place to be on this night in the world..



Moon included it was about 5 AM when I was listening to the gorgeous sound of many howling wolves from my little tent.. they were far enough away, but close enough I could make out either a little one, or something smaller within the howling group.. do coyotes howl?
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5 comments:

  1. What an adventure.....Hope you enjoy your visit to Seattle. Expect rain but Thursday should be nice. i am envious you get to do this as I am an avid ADV rider. Stay safe!

    Leslie aka advgrrls

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  2. Hope to see you at Touratech.

    Timmer from Sidestandup

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  3. mm,I imagine this with a little of Thomas Newman's soundtrack of The Horse Whisperer.

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  4. Great eye for perspective in your shots......just recently discovered your blog and am enjoying the read.......while planning my trip to the Americas in Sept 2012.

    Bob
    Muskoka
    Ontario

    ReplyDelete