Day 6 (Wyoming and Montana)
We drove through the Bighorn Mountains, ordeal and all, but made it safely to the Beartooth Inn where we met the night attendant, Nick. What a nice man! He was extremely accommodating and very nice to have a conversation with.We never realized the sights around the hotel until we stepped out into the morning. We were greeted with bright blue skies, the moon high overhead and stunning snow capped mountains in the distance; and with that... we were off to Yellowstone National Park...
On our way through Wyoming we were greeting with tall mountains of stark rock. They were absolutely captivating. I found myself leaning forward in my seat as we drove through, camera in hand, mesmerized by these mountains of rock that jutted up all around me as we pressed onward through the west.
The Shoshone Mountains were breathtaking as we drove through. They are so tall and they surround the road as you drive through. I realized how small we are in comparison to this country. I've lived in one small town after another in NY and I don't think I had the knowledge to appreciate our insignificance until driving out West. I'm truly running out of adjectives to describe it!!!
All of these pictures were taken while on our way to Yellowstone National Park on route 16.
Unfortunately, it's hard to appreciate something this magnanimous through pictures, but I did my best to capture some of the breadth of this continent.
We spent an entire day at Yellowstone National Park and did not see everything we wanted to see! There were over 1000 miles of trails with sights unknown that we couldn't indulge in due to time constraints. This is the other place that I would like to come back to sometime. (Badlands is another)
We arrived at Yellowstone earlier in the day and it was a bit chilly! Also, because of the higher elevation there was snow on the ground. But even with the snow it was absolutely gorgeous!
Pictures are just not doing any justice to the park at all!! Elevation at the beginning of the park was around 8300. I'm pretty sure that at one point we hit around 9000 ft. All I know is that walking around taking pictures my breathing became labored very quickly upon any exertion. I even became light-headed, and nauseous. Come to find out later, I had altitude sickness. Go me!!!
But the altitude bends did not stop me from having fun and taking pictures. Look how gorgeous these snow capped mountains are!!!
Once we started back down the mountains into an altitude around 6000, the snow began to decrease.
Butte Lake was just stunning. I took many striking pictures all around this lake. Right after I took this picture, I had looked down at the rocks to find my next shot and I found a heart shaped rock. Of all the places I could have knelt down to take a picture, this is the spot I found. Millions of rocks on the beach and I find the one heart shaped one. It kind of put things into perspective for me. I truly believe that I was given this opportunity for this trip by an Almighty Hand!
Such blue sky and waters!!!
But we didn't come here just to see the blue skies and water did we? Let's get into some geysers!!!
Ok, I had to throw in the really cool looking gnarled dead tree too!!
These geysers were very warm! Standing next to them with the wind blowing, there was steam blasting my face at times. On the bright side it was a great facial!! But some of these had a very strong smell of sulfur! This one here was not stinky at all!
So pretty!! There were geyser all over Yellowstone. They were incredible to see, but my goal was to get to Old Faithful.
We arrived at Old Faithful and after talking to a couple people we realized that Old Faithful goes off every 90 minutes. It had just gone off an hour and 15 minutes ago, so we had gotten there at the perfect time.
Without missing a beat, Old Faithful erupted about 15 minutes later. It was the most amazing thing I've every seen!! It felt unbelievable to be here and watch this after years of seeing pictures and hearing stories about Yellowstone and Old Faithful.
After witnessing this event we headed out of the park and made our way through the rest of the park on our way to Montana. Where we would stay for the night. We took pictures along the way and that's where I saw my first buffalo!!
This guy came so close to the car that I could have reached out and touched him. It was a little intimidating at first, but they seemed so gentle and just walked by us.
So many beautiful sights to see. We were stopping every few feet just to get out and take pictures.
The waterfalls were amazing!! We had seen them from down the road and weren't sure we were going to be able to get a picture because they were down a large cliff. But I zoomed in and was able to take this shot.
Snow capped mountains in the distance were a bit scary at first. I kept remember going over the Bighorn Mountains. But I soon realized that we were just passing by this mountain and didn't have to go over it!
This was a little frightening though!! I saw where we were going and almost asked to turn around, except that the road was too narrow and there was no place to go!!
We saw this little town from a distance and didn't realize that we would be driving through it. You'd never believe what we saw there...
Elk!! All around the town! There was a policeman close by and was telling people to stay in their cars to take pictures. Whatever...
And shortly after leaving Yellowstone, Wyoming, we entered Montana and made our way up to Bozeman to spend the night.
I thoroughly enjoyed Yellowstone. It is definitely a must see. I wish we had more time to spend there because there was just so much that we didn't get to see. Maybe another trip...
On our way through Wyoming we were greeting with tall mountains of stark rock. They were absolutely captivating. I found myself leaning forward in my seat as we drove through, camera in hand, mesmerized by these mountains of rock that jutted up all around me as we pressed onward through the west.
The Shoshone Mountains were breathtaking as we drove through. They are so tall and they surround the road as you drive through. I realized how small we are in comparison to this country. I've lived in one small town after another in NY and I don't think I had the knowledge to appreciate our insignificance until driving out West. I'm truly running out of adjectives to describe it!!!
All of these pictures were taken while on our way to Yellowstone National Park on route 16.
Unfortunately, it's hard to appreciate something this magnanimous through pictures, but I did my best to capture some of the breadth of this continent.
We spent an entire day at Yellowstone National Park and did not see everything we wanted to see! There were over 1000 miles of trails with sights unknown that we couldn't indulge in due to time constraints. This is the other place that I would like to come back to sometime. (Badlands is another)
We arrived at Yellowstone earlier in the day and it was a bit chilly! Also, because of the higher elevation there was snow on the ground. But even with the snow it was absolutely gorgeous!
Pictures are just not doing any justice to the park at all!! Elevation at the beginning of the park was around 8300. I'm pretty sure that at one point we hit around 9000 ft. All I know is that walking around taking pictures my breathing became labored very quickly upon any exertion. I even became light-headed, and nauseous. Come to find out later, I had altitude sickness. Go me!!!
But the altitude bends did not stop me from having fun and taking pictures. Look how gorgeous these snow capped mountains are!!!
Once we started back down the mountains into an altitude around 6000, the snow began to decrease.
Such blue sky and waters!!!
But we didn't come here just to see the blue skies and water did we? Let's get into some geysers!!!
Ok, I had to throw in the really cool looking gnarled dead tree too!!
These geysers were very warm! Standing next to them with the wind blowing, there was steam blasting my face at times. On the bright side it was a great facial!! But some of these had a very strong smell of sulfur! This one here was not stinky at all!
So pretty!! There were geyser all over Yellowstone. They were incredible to see, but my goal was to get to Old Faithful.
We arrived at Old Faithful and after talking to a couple people we realized that Old Faithful goes off every 90 minutes. It had just gone off an hour and 15 minutes ago, so we had gotten there at the perfect time.
Without missing a beat, Old Faithful erupted about 15 minutes later. It was the most amazing thing I've every seen!! It felt unbelievable to be here and watch this after years of seeing pictures and hearing stories about Yellowstone and Old Faithful.
After witnessing this event we headed out of the park and made our way through the rest of the park on our way to Montana. Where we would stay for the night. We took pictures along the way and that's where I saw my first buffalo!!
This guy came so close to the car that I could have reached out and touched him. It was a little intimidating at first, but they seemed so gentle and just walked by us.
So many beautiful sights to see. We were stopping every few feet just to get out and take pictures.
The waterfalls were amazing!! We had seen them from down the road and weren't sure we were going to be able to get a picture because they were down a large cliff. But I zoomed in and was able to take this shot.
Snow capped mountains in the distance were a bit scary at first. I kept remember going over the Bighorn Mountains. But I soon realized that we were just passing by this mountain and didn't have to go over it!
This was a little frightening though!! I saw where we were going and almost asked to turn around, except that the road was too narrow and there was no place to go!!
We saw this little town from a distance and didn't realize that we would be driving through it. You'd never believe what we saw there...
Elk!! All around the town! There was a policeman close by and was telling people to stay in their cars to take pictures. Whatever...
And shortly after leaving Yellowstone, Wyoming, we entered Montana and made our way up to Bozeman to spend the night.
I thoroughly enjoyed Yellowstone. It is definitely a must see. I wish we had more time to spend there because there was just so much that we didn't get to see. Maybe another trip...
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