Day 11 -- Almost Home

We put in a long day of driving today. We didn't get on the road till close to 9am again; we're still working ourselves back into the new time zone.

After driving nearly 600 miles through the rest of North Dakota we stopped in Madison, WI for supper. We ate at a Country Buffet. It was good and everyone got their bellies full. We decided to drive on. After realizing that were were so close to Chicago, we decided it would be best to get on the other side of town tonight, so we drove to Peru, IL. We found a Super 8, and plan on leaving around 8 in the am.

Since we didn't get to go into Canada like we had planned, everyone is looking forward to making it home a day early, even if it is late tomorrow night.

Day 10 -- The Road Home

Now that all of the fun is over, it's time to head back east. We've had a great trip so far, but it's time to head back. Starting out from Great Falls, Montana, it's a long ride back across the country to North Carolina. There's not much to do, except ride and enjoy the scenery.

We saw lots of deer and antelope this morning, but as the day went on we saw less and less. The country was pretty and everyone enjoyed just riding and looking. Sarah wanted me to mention that we saw some of the biggest dandelions we've ever seen today. The puff ball heads on them were the size of a softball. When we stopped at a rest area, I picked her and Lily one so they could blow the seeds off.

Today was Lily's birthday, so we stopped to celebrate at Applebee's. The wait staff sang to her and she got a hot fudge sunday; she was 13 today.

Once again, as the sun went down, we were met by our evening barrage of insects. They're small, but there are thousands of them in each of the thousands of swarms we drive through.

Gas is getting more expensive, it was around 4.05 today, but we are getting a little better gas millage at about 25mpg... Must be because we're headed south.

Day 9 -- Glacier... Sort of...

Wow, our final night at the cabin in West Yellowstone. I can't say that any of us will miss it. It was nice enough, just tight. We planned on an early start and did relatively well at getting out. We knew we had a long way to drive if we were going to make it through Glacier and on into Canada.

The drive was great, just a very long way. Montana is such a big state, it seems like it takes forever just to drive from the bottom to the top. As we approached glacier we thought the trip would be worth it. We started out in the park by seeing a small bull moose...

Our excitement was short lived because of road construction in the park. We were stuck in traffic for 15 or 20 minutes. Things only got worse when we finally got through only to discover a mile later that the pass was closed; there would be no going across and on into Canada for us. Everyone was disappointed. The bad part was, I had been on their web page several times looking for any info, and even now, can't find anything about the road closing. We're very disappointed.

We came on around the park and are staying in Great Falls, Montana at a Motel 6... By far the nicest place we've stayed so far.

Day 8 -- The Grand Tetons

After spending nearly a week touring Yellowstone, we decided for a little bit of a change today, but first we had some quick, unfinished business in the park.

The picture of Sarah and I at the Old Faithful sign from a few days ago didn't turn out. We went back and got a new pic. None of us had any souvenirs from our trip, we went into the gift shop there at old faithful and pick some stuff up. I found a nice hat and long sleeve tee shirt. Sarah found one too.

We rode on down south toward the southern park entrance and toward the Grand Tetons. It was a gorgeous day, with a little wind and 80 degree temps. The perfect day to go to the mountains.

We stopped in the Tetons at the main visitors center. I'm always kind of disappointed by that visitors center because it has more about the Native Americans in the area than the mountains. I know that's an important part of the mountains history, but it would be nice to know a little more about the mountains.

As we headed south toward Jackson Hole, we finally saw what Sarah had been looking for all week... A MOOSE, actually, two moose; a mama and her baby. They were in a little swamp below the road. Sarah was SO excited; everyone was. We took about 30 minutes to take pictures. It was great!

When we finally arrived at Jackson Hole, we stopped at the visitor's center. Gary was in heaven. He enjoyed seeing all of the mounts inside. They had a small heard of elk mounted in a very lifelike pose. I think he likes it because it gives him ideas for new mounts. He even said that he thought today was one of his favorites.

We came back to West Yellowstone through Idaho. Everyone was excited about getting to go through a new state. It was pretty county, and wasn't like any we had seen yet. We saw a few potato fields, but it looked like most were planted in some kind of grain; probably rye.

We were so hungry when we got back to West Yellowstone. We ate at the same place Sarah and I ate last night, except everyone had American food. I had chicken fried steak; it was pretty good.

We came back to the cabin, and discussed our plans for leaving tomorrow (Glacier National Park, then home). After finalizing our plans, Sarah and I walked around town. I bought Lily some fudge for her birthday, then back to the cabins for showers and bed; we have an early morning tomorrow.

Day 7 -- The Rodeo

We decided to use today as a rest day. Sarah had some homework to do online and a couple of tests that had to be done, so we left her at the cabin while we went and did some laundry.

After we got that done, we came and picked her up for lunch. We decided on some barbecue. After searching the town, we found a place that looked promising. The prices seemed a little high, but we were all tired of sandwiches for lunch.

After we got our food, we discovered why the prices seemed high... The sandwiches were HUGE, and GOOD! I highly recommend Beartooth Barbecue to anyone who is in the West Yellowstone Area.

We dropped Sarah back at the cabin so she could take her second test. We went back into town and looked through all the gift shops and fly shops. Lots of stuff, but most over priced and under valued.

After going through the town from one end to the other, we came back to the cabin. Sarah and I decided to go for out for mexican. No one else with us likes it, and we'd both been wanting it. After we ate, we came to the conclusion that the best Mexican food is around home.

All over town we've been seeing signs for the Rodeo. Sarah was tickled when I told her we would go. She was so excited, and for good reason; they put on a pretty good show. After it was done, she asked to come back tomorrow night, but I'm afraid we can't. We're going to the Tetons tomorrow, as well as Jackson Hole.

After tomorrow, it will be time to start heading back East. I think everyone's having a blast, but also ready to see our mountains.

Day 6 -- The Day of the GRIZZLIES

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Grizzlies... Yup, You read right... But more on that later; I was just trying to get your attention, so keep reading.

Gary was itching to put a hook in the water today, so he decided to let us drop him off at a little creek so he could fish. I fished the little creek a few years ago, so it was ok that I didn't fish any. (By the way, if your ever here, you should try to fish Cascade Creek).

After we dropped him off, we decided to hit the North loop. On our way toward Tower falls, we got behind a string of traffic as we climbed the side of a mountain. We looked to see what the holdup was, and saw a HUGE grizzly bear walking up the side of the road. We tried to snap some pics, but all we could see was his rear. Of course the traffic was slow, so we weren't able to get up to him before he took off over the side of the hill.

We drove past and decided to turn around a little ways up the road to see if we could see him again. Sure enough, by the time we got back to the same spot, all of the cars were gone, but we stopped and looked over the edge, and there he was. Lumbering about down at the bottom of the hill. We were very excited and got some great pictures.

We were stopped one more time on our way to tower falls. We think it was the same bear, but we didn't see him this time.

At tower falls we came across some very interesting hippies who were trying to give the buffalo a voice. They were afraid that the buffalo in the park were being mistreated... Ok, if you've ever been to Yellowstone, you'll know, these animals have it made more than any other animal in the world. My philosophy... "So many buffalo, so few recipes".

Tower falls was great, to my knowledge I never had seen them before.

We rode on around to Mammoth Hot Springs where we saw many elk and toured the fort. We also rode down to the Roosevelt entrance; something everyone should see.

Finally, we headed back toward Norris Geyser Basin. On our way we saw our second bear. He was up in the woods enjoying a nap in the rain. We couldn't see him well, but he was definitely a bear.

We went on to Norris hoping we would get to see Steamboat erupt. It hadn't blown since May of 2005, so it was a long shot, but today just wasn't the day.

Finally, we went and picked up Gary. He caught about 12 Cutthroat, and about 5 Greyling. He would have been happy if he hadn't caught a thing.

As we traveled back we saw one more grizzly bear. He was across the river and he disappeared into the woods quickly.

Overall, this was a great day, maybe the best yet. I think everyone enjoyed it better than any other yet.

Day 5 -- Old Faithful

Today was our first full day of exploring the Yellowstone area, so why not go to Yellowstone's most famous thermal feature... Old faithful!

We decided to tour the lower loop, so we headed to old Faithful first. On our way, we saw a Coyote and more buffalo. We got to old faithful sometime around 9am and were able to beat most of the crowd. After we toured the Old Faithful lodge, we settled in for the show. Old faithful was running a little late (by about 8 minutes), but was still within it's +/- 10 minute window. I went and told the rangers to open the main valve a little to see if they could fix their slight timing issue... I kind of thought they would have it computer controlled by now.

After Old faithful, we went into the Old Faithful Inn (which was amazing), went to the van and ate, then walked around the other geysers in the lower geyser basin. We got to see Grand errupt, which is the worlds largest predictable geyser. It was amazing! It only erupts around twice a day, so we were lucky to see it.

After the geysers, we continued around the lower loop, stopping at the lake, mud volcano, and the Dragon's Mouth. I was disappointed at the Dragon's mouth, it was MUCH less active than I remember. The sign said that it had been decreasing in activity since sometime in 1993 when it had suddenly just decided go into a quiet phase.

The mud volcano was not what I expected either. the mud was very thin, almost just dirty hot water. The park is so wet that the mud just wasn't that muddy.

On our way back, we were stopped in traffic twice, once there were multiple rangers packing bearspray, we heard someone say something about a grizzly, we looked, and turned around, braving the traffic again to see it, but never did.

The second time we were stopped, we got to see a wolf. It was in the distance, and laying on the ground being lazy, but there none the less.

We made it back to the cabin, ate, and went to bed.