West Yellowstone

Altho we are happily retired and have minimal obligations these days, there are still annoying blips on the "life is good" radar screen that must be attended to. Nothing of any interest to our thousands of readers but just some bookkeeping and such that needs to be done and in our packing , we forgot to bring them. There was a discussion about flying / driving back to Florida to deal with it all and then decided that modern inventions like FEDEX and the phone might just be the solution. So, the next dilemma (I am a very good speller but that word had me stumped for a bit...who knew it had 2 M's ).....was our itinerary.

We left West Glacier on Monday morning and pointed the bus south. We passed Missoula and continued across the high plains ringed with distant mountains until we came to Idaho Falls, Idaho. Montana really is Big Sky Country. You can see for thousands of miles it seems.......the one thing I've noticed about this trip is the abundance of historical markers along the way. We miss alot of them due to small print as viewed from 60 MPH but when we can read the title or the name or the place, we go to the iPad to Bing to look it up and read all about what we are seeing. ( The iPad's 3G capability is pretty amazing....even out in the middle of nowhere.)

There was only 1 choice of campgrounds in Idaho Springs....it was OK, not great but fine for overnight. The town is quite nice, about 50,000, and has this amazing fountain in the middle of a round about. You can't see the detail but there are animals in the rocks and an eagles nest with little eaglets in it . It is really beautiful.
When we were packing up that morning, we noticed this unusual camping arrangement. I spoke with the young couple and took this quick pic. They are pulling a trailer with the jeep-type vehicle on a flat bed and this 'house on top'.
They said they like to go 4 wheeling and they found this set-up at a rally. It is made by ARB Touring (because Michael would want to know) and when you push up on the ladder, it folds up the tent floor.

So now, we are in West Yellowstone. It was a nice easy drive over and we are in a beautiful campground. Grizzly RV Park is large and within easy walking distance of restaurants, shopping and museums. The sites are large and filled with high end luxury coaches as well as the camping trailers. We had a reservation and glad we did as they have been full every night. Weather is a bit cooler and it rained overnight. We did a short drive into the Park, just on the outskirts of this small town, and found the landscape much different from Glacier. We followed a river with many fisherman on it. Then came to stopped traffic to view the buffalo meandering along the road. Farther along, we saw elk and more camera wielding tourists.

Hoping to spend the day in the park but looks like more rain might be coming. More than anything it will hamper the quality of my photos.....they are amateurish enough without clouds and rain. It will be the first rainy day of our trip if it continues.