If you know us, you know we had to go to Yellowstone when we were in Montana! It is one of our favorite parks, most likely because of all the different animals you can see. This was our first time staying at Fishing Bridge Campground and may be our last. It is one of the last campgrounds open into the Fall, and it has electricity. That means we can run a heater and stay warm in the evening without blowing through propane. But this is a very tight campground- we were sleeping less than 6 feet from the van next to us. And we snore so I’m sorry to those people. And there is not a space for a picnic table which is hard on us since Dave BBQs most of our dinners. And cooks our eggs and bacon in the morning. And makes our tea. We rarely cook inside the rig unless it is raining or we have power and make sourdough pancakes (yes, I bring Philippe along so I can feed him and sometimes use him for sourdough pancakes!). We did find that a new part of the campground (E loop) has power AND space for bigger rigs. So if we decide to ever come this late in the year again we will try to book a place up there.
Yellowstone had the catastrophic floods in Gardner and the Lamar Valley last summer. We originally were staying outside the park in Gardner to be sure to have quicker access to the valley. So much for THAT! Most of Lamar Valley was still closed although slated to open again mid-October. Instead of coming just straight down from Glacier NP, we had to go into Idaho and back through Montana, and come into the park from West Yellowstone. Two good things that occurred from this – we found a cute little quiet campground called Lewis and Clark Caverns. We were just quickly staying overnight so we were not able to take a tour of the cave. It looked pretty good though. The second thing that was positive from our detour is that we stopped in a market and found the Huckleberry ice cream sandwiches like those from the welcoming party in Bozeman. Yum!
The road between Canyon and Tower has finally reopened after 3 years so the drive along there was nice. The Lamar valley itself was not open but we could go along the road towards Lamar until the creek. And did we see animals galore! We saw so many pronghorn, a fox, a wolf, just a few elk, no moose, Sandhill cranes, swan and 1 bear. And naturally, so many bison. We saw most of the bison in Hayden Valley. It is the beginning of the rut and the bulls were either still in lala land, or tongue flapping like crazy. It is amazing to watch big bulls come charging down the hill and across the road to where the females and calves were down by the river. They were half sliding down on their hind quarters! And they did not even see the cars or people watching them. And people are soooooo stupid around them. It was even on the national news about how people were being hurt by the bison because they get so close. And these males were oblivious to the people and would have gone over the top of them. And yet, they get out of their cars and walk closer to those grazing bison to get a picture. People- that is what zoom lenses are for!!
I know that anyone who knows me thinks I rank as an animal fanatic! Probably true. I spent 2 summers reading the encyclopedia cover to cover mostly because 1) I was bored and 2) to learn about all the weird animals. I may have converted Dave over with his photography! Up at 5 am in 20F weather? Fanatic!
Overall, Yellowstone never fails to help us reconnect with our role in life. Although we skipped the geysers and stink pots this time, we truly enjoy this kind of nature. We are just a small part of the natural world and need to always do our part to leave the world a better place!
