Yellowstone National Park

We've been busy and out late, so here's the scoop on Yellowstone, which we just left today.

What an amazing place it was, the mountains, the rivers, the animals and the radically different weather!

First off though, we left Buffalo, Wyoming Friday morning and headed toward Montana. We stopped at the National Monument at the Battle of Little Big Horn, where General George Custer and his men died. Very pretty place on top of barren hills overlooking the distance.

Then we moved on to Billings for lunch, Olive Garden! Civilization! Food never tasted so good.

We then decided to take the way into Yellowstone through the northeast entrance past Red Lodge, Montana. This path is called the Beartooth Pass, and it was a doozy. What a great trip, but I'm thankful that Michele drove. It took us over 2 hours to get from Red Lodge to Yellowstone, and it was probably only 40 miles. We ascended to over 10,000 feet, through multiple switchbacks and had amazing views. This is probably the craziest road ever made. The temperature dropped dramatically, and there was snow on the ground at the top. Just to point out that all these roads into Yellowstone, except for one, are closed until May due to weather.

So we made it to Yellowstone's east side, and then had to drive over 2 hours just to get through it and to West Yellowstone. It was an amazing drive, with snow capped mountains in the distance, valleys with rivers and herds of buffalo, elk here and there, geysers spewing steam and all kinds of different ecological environments. We made it to West Yellowstone, and our house we were staying with Fred and Becky, a bit later than we thought, but it was a great drive.

We had a fun time with Fred, Becky, Sam and Alex. The boys had fun playing with Claire and Aaron, and they were troopers getting strapped onto people's backs and hauled around for hikes through mineral springs, hills and geysers.