Yellowstone was (after Minneapolis) our next stop that we would be spending some time at. I picked out a state park that we could stay at in Montana about halfway between Badlands and Yellowstone called Cooney State Park. The drive through Eastern Wyoming and Montana was mostly uneventful as we skipped sightseeing destinations on the way in favour of saving our energy for Yellowstone.
 |
| Cute little fox patrolling the reservoir |
 |
| Cooking Setup for the Night (Pasta, Tomato Sauce and some rehydrated soy crumble) |
 |
| Our Tent |
As you might be able to tell from the photo there was not a lot of shelter in the campground and we ended up having quite the poor sleep as the wind and rain really picked up in the night. I ended up having to bring our car right beside the tent as a windbreak, but we made it through without blowing away.
We had planned to go to take the Beartooth Highway to get into the northern part of Yellowstone, a beautiful, mountainous drive with lots of high elevation birding potential (Black Rosy Finches were theoretically possible!!!). We took a long winding road to the top and unfortunately they had just closed the highway when we reached the top (and no warning at all at the bottom of the mountain). Might have been for the best but we had to turn around and take a longer route.
 |
| Convoy of crestfallen cars |
 |
| First Moose of the trip |
Despite the morning's setbacks, we arrived at the gates of Yellowstone with minimal issues. Driving into Yellowstone I was blown away by the beauty of it all. Photos do not come close to doing it justice. Vast plains, dense forest and looming mountains makes for quite the impression. 'They don't make mountains like this in Ontario' is something I mused to myself often.
The crowds were kind of brutal, lots of traffic jams caused by people looking at bears, bison and birds (actually the last one might have just been us). But can you blame other people for appreciating what you are also trying to appreciate?
 |
| Bison Jam |
We stayed at Mammoth Campground for our stay at Yellowstone, it was absolutely gorgeous. Got to see my lifer Townsend Solitaire and enjoy lots of Mountain Chickadees, Black Billed Magpies and Clark's Nutcrackers waltzing around as well as flocks of Pine Siskins.
 |
| Does not get much better than this... |
 |
| Elk just hanging out in the campground, Hearing them Yodeling at night was a treat |
A lot of our Yellowstone experience was in the car as we couldn't leave our dogs and could not take dogs on any of the backcountry trails which made for a lot of driving around the park. We drove the Lamar valley and had incredible views of Bison Herds.
We also took turns seeing Grand Prismatic Spring (Along with Old Faithful, one of the highlights of Yellowstone.)
 |
| Otherwordly Colours |
 |
| Cooper was not impressed |
 |
| Another Stunning Vista |
We had an incredible time in Yellowstone. Hopefully sometime we will return and it will live in our memories. As far as the trip goes, we set off north to Glacier National Park.
No comments:
Post a Comment