day 8 - Yellowstone

Driving to Yellowstone through Montana is quite beautiful. We drove through the snow capped Rockies and Jon wanted to ditch the rest of the trip to see if there was any skiing available. We were on the Beartooth Scenic Highway. One of America’s most beautiful drives! We made many stops to take pictures. At one stop I was the happiest I have been since March! I got to stand in some snow! Everyone around me was amazed that I kicked my shoes off and stood there in my bare feet. I thought I was in heaven.





On our way to the Old Faithful Inn we saw deer, elk, mountain goat, and bison, hundreds of bison. We have three days in this beautiful inn. The Inn was built in 1903 at a cost of about $140,000. The ceiling is 76 feet high and everywhere you look you see pine. The fireplace in the lobby was constructed of 500 tons of stone. The first guests paid $4.00 per night. The inn survived a huge earthquake and in 1988 was almost consumed in a forest fire. The new sprinkler system, installed the year before, saved the building from the 200 foot wall of flame. The inn is only open from May to the beginning of October. It is then winterized; this includes covering all of the first floor windows so the snowpack doesn’t break them.




If this bear was real, I would have wet my pants!


We arrived at our hotel just in time to make our supper reservations. We had a good meal of roasted buffalo. My second helping was sooooo tender. It is a pity that Wegman’s doesn’t sell bison roast. It’s a good thing Jon doesn’t live out here; he would eat them to extinction.





After dinner we watched Old Faithful erupt. At first it would sputter and throw steam. I thought it was broken. After it did this for a few times, it finally erupted. I was scared that it broke just as we arrived. I was starting to think it was as “Faithful” as Billy Clinton!



As we are writing this blog, we are sitting in the lodge sipping beer and wine coolers. Jon put a filled ice bucket in his back pack and filled it up with assorted drinks. Since it is pretty dark inside and out we think we can get away with this. The second floor of the inn has a huge balcony that overlooks the geyser. It’s due to go off again in about 5 minutes.