Today was just what I needed. Montana is unbelievable! I can't wait to download the pictures. We drove from Deer Lodge, MT to Cooke City, through Yellowstone National Park. I was so excited driving and pulled over probably 10 times to take pictures. I kept thinking to myself "this is god's country". Just like one would imagine- mountains, valleys, streams, fly fishing, etc. I thought Montana would be greener, but I guess it's just doesn't rain as much as I thought it did. Some areas reminded me of New Mexico. Speaking of NM, I would have to say that NM is my favorite state so far. But, MT is a close second. Now I understand why movie stars buy ranches here.
We took a "scenic route" today and it wasn't THAT bad. I was actually glad I took a chance and got off the interstate. We drove to West Yellowstone, which is a nice, little town if you are looking for a place to stay. It has everything you would need while on vacation. We entered the park from there and drove north and east.
Parts of it were boring- looking at sticks where trees used to be. Other parts take your breath away. Some parts make your heart stop- like the hairpin turns with NO guardrails. Come on Bush- could we bring our troops home and buy some guard rails with that money? Thankfully the speed limit was about 25-30, so no one was expecting me to go very fast. But, I was very grateful that it wasn't dark or raining. Again, I thought to myself "thank GOD I have a 4-wheel drive".
A few times people in cars pulled over to see an animal. The first one we saw pretty quickly. I asked a guy "what is everyone looking at?". He said an eagle. I actually laughed. The guy probably thought I was some crazy New Yorker. But, we had seen about 20 eagles in the last few weeks.
The next "traffic jam" a guy yells from his car "mountain lion!". I couldn't see a thing. I think the thing was like 2 miles away.
After about 20 minutes, the traffic stops again and people are getting out of their cars. This time- a bear! I don't see it at first, but then the bear comes closer to our car. Michael is kind of excited. Especially since he has a list from the park with animals. They make it for kids. He was checking off animals as we saw them.
It was a black bear- not THAT big. But, maybe they aren't THAT big to begin with. Also, he was about 500 ft from me. So maybe close up he's bigger. Not that I would want to test that theory. But, it was exciting. He was hanging out on the side of the road eating things. It was funny how he couldn't care less than 50 people were looking at him.
Bears were on my short list of animals I REALLY wanted to see. The other were buffalo. I said to Michael "let's do the buffalo chant". So, we started chanting "we love buffalo. we want to see some buffalo." Then about 15 minutes we come to this beautiful valley with a river running through it. There are about 100 or so buffalo grazing below. I pull the car over and get a couple of pictures- but they are pretty far away. One nice man lets me look through his scope. It was really cool. Michael stayed in the car- he couldn't care less at this point. Plus, the skies were getting dark and it started to rain. Michael not only hates rain, but is scared of lightening.
Anyway, we pull into the little (and I mean little) town of Cooke City, MT and check into our hotel. It's pretty cool- except for no elevator and we're on the top floor. It starts raining pretty hard and we unpack. I'm glad we'll be here for 2 days- so we can relax tomorrow. I'm going to work on some pictures and maybe the boat video. It just takes a lot of time because I have to connect the external hard drive.
Well, we are all comfy in our room. No AC, but it's cool here and they have a ceiling fan. I'm looking forward to checking out the town tomorrow. It should take me about 15 minutes :) It looks like one of those old towns from the 1800's. Just wait until you see the photos.
Thanks again everyone for reading our blog. We're having a great time!
See photos here: http://homepage.mac.com/lighthousestudios/PhotoAlbum76.html
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