So, on Friday, Feb 15, we left for Yellowstone. Ok, well, in actuality we left for Twin Falls, Idaho (halfway between Minden and the Gardiner, MT entrance to Yellowstone). And we left about 2 hours later than we originally anticipated, thanks to a downed server that Jeremy had to fix prior to getting out of Dodge. We drove to Reno and had lunch at an Indian food buffet. Mmmm. We were stuffed and on our way.
Northeastern Nevada and southern Idaho are both very similar, boring landscapes. The most remarkable part of the night was when we ended up behind a double-trailer hauling hay. He was going faster than he should have been, but not as fast as we wanted to. There were 3 cars behind him, all of whom obviously wanted to pass him but were as afraid to as I was. His back trailer was not only swaying side to side, it was rocking to and fro, which caused his entire truck and 1st trailer to sway even more. Every time I got up the guts to try to pass, he would sway more and the back trailer would tilt onto one side, with the other side’s tires lifting off the ground. Finally I just gunned it and passed him, my heart pounding the entire time. I was certain we’d end up under 100 tons of hay! Luckily, we did not. ☺
We rolled into Twin Falls at around 11 p.m. and crashed. The next morning we left by around 8 a.m. and headed up to Gardiner. We got there at about 3:30 or 4 (I think) and skipped the hotel to go into the park. We drove through the Roosevelt Arch and then within about 45 seconds ran into buffalo. Lots of buffalo! It was AWESOME! I never once got sick of going slow for the buffalo while we were there. They are so majestic and impressive and they just always look sad. So I always felt sorry for them and tried not to upset them.
After sunset we headed to the hotel here the Wi-Fi was sketchy, at best. We have learned one thing about Montana: It is a much SLOWER life there. Nothing moves very quickly, unless you’re on the road. Then they are the most impatient people I have ever seen. It is bizarre! But try to get service at a restaurant? Try to get a bill? Geezus. It got frustrating.
Sunday morning we got up at around 5:30 a.m. and left the hotel at 6:15 to try to get to Lamar Valley by sunrise. We didn’t quite make it because there was a lot of ice on the roads and I went super-slow because any time you come around a curve, you have a good chance of having buffalo in the road, but we did stop to photograph the
awesome sunrise. We found the valley, and one wolf, and bighorn sheep … we drove back and forth a few times and were happy snappers. ☺
We had lunch at the restaurant at Mammoth Hot Springs and WOW. I wish we’d found it immediately. AWESOME food and wait staff. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a little more pricey than other places in Gardiner, but it’s what we’re used to paying out here in our area, so it wasn’t a huge deal. Awesome, awesome food. So much so that we decided to head back there for dinner the next night.
After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a little break and then to Mammoth Hot Springs, which was really a mammoth disappointment. There was so much snow we couldn’t really see the colors of the different mosses and such. We climbed alllll the way to the top on snow-covered steps and after 300+ feet of climbing, we discovered it looked better from the bottom!
We went back into the park after that and Jeremy did some snowshoeing (I sadly was afflicted with issues during the trip, so was on some vicodin .. no snowshoeing for me), trying to get pics of a big bull elk. By the time we got home that night, we were exhausted! And then Jeremy realized he’d lost his new phone – the one that does EVERYTHING but make coffee. So he called Sprint and cancelled his service. We had to meet the snowcoach no later than 7:30 a.m. the next morning, so off to bed.
Day 1 Photos (Sunday morning, Feb 17)Day 1 Photos (Sunday afternoon, Feb 17)So, Monday morning we went to pick up our tickets for the snowcoach and amazingly, when I said my name, they said “Kippy?? Were you by any chance up at the hot springs last night?” Yep. They found Jeremy’s phone! And my name was in it. Unfortunately my phone was laying dead in the car, because it had been on roam since we left Nevada. So they’d called Jeremy’s parents who seemed to not believe a word of what these potential scammers might be saying. Haha. It was a weird twist of fate, but Jeremy had his phone back. And the girl behind the desk was so cute! She said, “Oh, you just made my day!” We made HER day? I’m telling you .. all the people we ran into at the Mammoth area have pretty much made us decide that we’re going to try to stay THERE next time we go to Yellowstone. They were all amazing!
So anyway, we went on this snow coach ride (not the smoothest of rides, for those of you who get carsick). The scenery was awesome (watch for my video in the next few days). Vic, our guide, was awesome. We got to see a lot of neat stuff, and met a lot of interesting people.
Even though the coach broke down – no, not “even though” – Partially due to the fact that the coach broke down, it was an awesome photography day, especially with the buffalo who chose to come up onto the road to check us all out. See? He wasn't really all that close in the shot I took when he was walking toward me.
Afterwards, we went out to the Mammoth restaurant for dinner. Pistachio parmesan encrusted trout for me .. it was absolutely unreal! When we got back to the room it was all we could do to check emails and post a few pics. We did a little pre-packing and went to sleep.
Day 2 Photos (Monday, Feb 18)
Tuesday morning, we got up at 5:15 a.m. and temps were -12º F – our coldest morning yet. Jeremy went out to start the car, then came back in and said, “Don’t panic!” Ha. Why is it whenever someone starts a conversation with that, it’s the first thing you do anyway? Well, he started the car fine and then moved it closer to the room so we could load it back up. Then he couldn’t get it started again. I only panicked a little, I swear. I was able to get it started again, so we were on our way. We found the bighorns pretty much first (we saw 2 wolves and a coyote on our way) and were out shooting them for probably about 5 minutes before I realized how much my fingers were aching. By the time I got back to the car they felt like someone had hit them with a hammer. Funny how I didn’t really feel the cold anywhere else. I grew up in northern Michigan – I know cold. But that was the first time I remember it hurting so much. Jeremy bought some of those hand warmer things where you just expose the packet to air and it stays warm for up to 8-10 hours. I’ll be damned if that thing didn’t work! I put one under my glove liner on the back of each hand, and it kept my fingers warm. I have no clue if it’s because it warms the blood coming through the veins or if it helps stop the veins from constricting in the cold, thereby allowing more blood flow to the fingertips .. but whatever it was, it totally worked. Then we saw the wolves (and we weren’t the only ones) and we chased them for miles along that ridge. They were absolutely awesome to watch! And while we were watching them I was digging for something in the back of the car, and then turned around and got the shock of my life when there was a coyote just crossing not more than 20 feet in front of us. I whispered to Jeremy so we were able to get some awesome detailed shots of it. I think I held my breath the entire time. ☺
This is a pic of all of the people lined up along one pullout to get shots of the wolves. Oh yeah, and Jeremy pointing to me and shouting at me to look at the wolves! Ha ha. You may need to click on the image to enlarge it and see those details.
Day 3 (about 3 hours) Photos (Tuesday, Feb 19)When we finally left the valley, around 9:30 a.m., it was all of 2º above 0. At that point, we were happy to be headed home. We left for Twin Falls and made pretty good time. On Wednesday we left Twin Falls around 9 a.m. and rolled into Reno at about 2:30 (after gaining back an hour). We ended our vacation the way we began it: with a buffet lunch at the Indian food restaurant. It was a fast-paced vacation with not enough time actually spent at Yellowstone, but it was an awesome “reset” for me.
I’m guessing this is not overly exciting for those of you who’ve been following the photos during our trip, but maybe the video will be better. ☺
