Greetings from Montana (via Tetons and Yellowstone)

Yep, Montana! The last thing you read in this Blog was about Thermopolis, Wyoming. I'm 2 days behind! We've been busy going thru Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks. We took over 100 photos. That's a lot to sort thru! OK, let's see if I can remember where we've been and what we've done ....

After leaving Thermopolis, we thought it was going to be uneventful until we hit the parks. We were wrong. Soon we were in the Wind River Canyon. It was spectacular. Reminded me a little of the Cheddar Gorge in England.





We went thru 3 tunnels in a row. You can also see the railroad tunnel on the other side of the river:


So, we're on our way to Grand Teton National Park. Yes, Emily, we rearranged our route a little to see them! But, I'm afraid you still have to go there in person because we only spent 1/2 day and our photos do not do justice! You have to see for yourself! But, here goes ...

We crosed the continental divide before seeing the Tetons and saw some pretty spectacular Rocky Mountains.


I was almost beginning to wonder if I would recognize the Tetons when we saw them, when we came around a corner and they smacked us in the face! It was such an awesome sight that it brought tears to my eyes! The photograph doesn't come close. You have to be there.




Then they got closer


and closer


Then we pulled into our campground and CRASH - unbelievable!! a national park maintenance crew in a van backed into our motorhome. They obviously didn't see us ... we're only 12 feet high and 9 feet wide! Jim even honked the horn as they backed up, not believing they would really continue to back up and run into us. We were at a dead standstill just waiting to pull into our campsite. AaAaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhhhhhh. Well, it sounded a lot worse than it was. They broke our front license plate (the Odie's Roadies that Lynne and John gave us :-( and bent the bumper in so it rubbed the front tire.

They were very apologetic and the reporting procedure was quite efficient. They sent us to a service station nearby to bend and cut the bumper so it doesn't rub and we will visit a body shop soon to deal with whatever front end damage we can't see. Anyways ... after that, we drank heavily and went to bed.

On to Yellowstone ...


We don't have much time, so we knew our main stop was Old Faithful. We just had to see that famous geyser, and we did. Click on the link to see a little video - it'll probably take a while to download.

Old Faithful.MPG

And, here are some photos:




The area around Old Faithful:
Notice the Yellow Stone (thanx to Andy for pointing this out to us .. Yellow Stone = Yellowstone!)








And, here's the only Buffalo we saw all day:


What is really amazing about Yellowstone is how the thermal activity covers such a large area - steam was coming out of the ground for miles and miles and miles ...





Yellowstone isn't just about thermal activity, there's some beautiful rivers too.



And wide open vistas.



We crossed the continental divide several times. There was a time in my life I would have wanted to go backpacking along the Continental Divide Trail. Now, I am perfectly happy looking at it from the comfort of my motorhome!



And saw beautiful wildflowers:









Then we had to leave on this beautiful but kinda scary road. This is the road to the north entrance.





That's all folks!



Here's a map of the route we took thru the area. As you can see, we barely scratched the surface. We will have to come back sometime when we have more time. I'd like to maybe get a workamping job in Wyoming and stay a whole summer sometime.